Tools for finding good coins — and spotting dodgy ones
The tools we actually use, the ones we chose not to, and honest notes on where each falls down. Nothing here is a paid placement, and where a tool feeds our own risk scoring we say so.
Safety & scam detection
Contract scanners and risk scorers. Read them all as snapshots — a clean scan five minutes before an LP unlock is still a clean scan.
Contract-level risk scan across 20+ EVM chains: honeypot simulation, mint authority, upgradeable proxy, transfer tax, blacklist functions, holder concentration.
The workhorse. Thirty-odd risk fields, keyless, and fast enough to run on every token we see. Its weakness is the weakness of all static scanners: it reads the contract as it exists right now, so a token that renounces ownership after seeding a hidden mint still looks clean.
Strengths: Free and keyless · Broad multichain coverage · 30+ discrete risk fields
Weaknesses: Point-in-time snapshot only · EVM-focused · Cannot see a delayed exploit
- Pricing
- Free public API, no key
- Chains
- Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, Polygon, Arbitrum
Reviewed — · API docs ↗
The de-facto Solana token risk checker. Returns a normalised 0-100 score plus named risks: mint authority, freeze authority, LP lock status, top-holder concentration, sniper supply.
If you trade Solana memecoins and check nothing else, check this. Note the score direction — higher means riskier, which trips people up. It is a snapshot, so a "Good" rating fifteen minutes before an LP unlock is still a "Good" rating.
Strengths: Free API · Solana-native · Names the specific risk, not just a number
Weaknesses: Solana only · Snapshot-based · Temporary LP locks can game it
- Pricing
- Free API, ~15 requests/minute
- Chains
- Solana
Reviewed — · API docs ↗
EVM "smell test" scoring 0-100 (higher = safer) from swap simulation, contract analysis, holder analysis and liquidity checks. Recomputed roughly every 10 minutes.
Pioneered the honeypot swap simulation, and the "similar contracts" fingerprint that catches copy-paste scam tokens is genuinely clever. The API price is steep for a content site, and the exact point weights are undisclosed, so you are trusting a black box.
Strengths: Live buy/sell simulation · Known-scam contract fingerprinting
Weaknesses: API US$99/mo · Undisclosed weightings · Score direction inverted vs RugCheck
- Pricing
- Free web tool; API from ~US$99/mo
- Chains
- Ethereum, BNB Chain, Base, Polygon
Reviewed —
Bubblemaps ↗
Free tierVisualises token holders as connected bubbles, exposing wallet clusters funded from a common source — the clearest way to see insider concentration hiding behind many addresses.
The single most persuasive screenshot in crypto safety. A holder table showing "top 10 hold 34%" looks survivable until Bubblemaps shows those ten wallets were all funded by the same address nine minutes before launch. Embed it, do not try to rebuild it.
Strengths: Reveals insider clusters no holder table shows · Magic Nodes traces the common funder
Weaknesses: Opaque API pricing · Reads as art until you know what to look for
- Pricing
- Free viewer; embeds and API by arrangement
- Chains
- Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, Base
Reviewed —
Solana token safety score ("Snifscore", 0-100, higher = safer) across 20+ indicators including mint/freeze risk, LP provider count and metadata mutability.
Overlaps RugCheck heavily and charges for what RugCheck gives away. Useful as a second opinion — when two independent scanners disagree about a token, that disagreement is itself information.
Strengths: Good per-factor breakdown · Cheap paid tier
Weaknesses: Overlaps RugCheck · API paywalled beyond 100 calls/mo
- Pricing
- Free 100 calls/mo; from ~US$47/mo
- Chains
- Solana
Reviewed —
Discovery & screeners
Where new tokens surface. The firehose is mostly scams by volume, which is precisely why a filter matters.
Real-time DEX charts and new-pair discovery across 100+ chains. The default screen for on-chain traders.
Unbeatable at what it does, and it gives the API away. Do not try to out-build it. Its firehose is also, by the numbers, mostly scams — which is the whole reason a curated, explained layer on top has value.
Strengths: Free keyless API · Genuinely real-time · Huge chain coverage
Weaknesses: No historical OHLCV · Zero editorial filtering — you see everything, including the rugs
- Pricing
- Free public API, no key (300 req/min)
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed — · API docs ↗
CoinGecko’s on-chain arm: new pools, trending pools and OHLCV history across 200+ networks and 1,500+ DEXes.
The cleanest free source of new-pool data with real candle history attached, which DEX Screener will not give you. This is what feeds our Coin Radar.
Strengths: Free · OHLCV history · new_pools and trending_pools endpoints
Weaknesses: Rate limited · Commercial terms follow CoinGecko’s
- Pricing
- Free public API (~30 req/min)
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed — · API docs ↗
The largest independent market-data aggregator: prices, market caps, exchange directory and trust scores for 17,000+ assets.
The most useful market API in crypto, and the one people most often use unlawfully. The keyless tier is explicitly not licensed for commercial republication — if you are running a business on it, you owe them money. We say this as a site that had to fix exactly that.
Strengths: Best-in-class coverage · Exchange trust scores · Honest about its own limits
Weaknesses: Free tier not licensed for commercial use · Keyless rate limits are punishing
- Pricing
- Free keyless tier (not for production); paid plans from ~US$129/mo
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed — · API docs ↗
On-chain analytics
Following the money once it moves. Powerful, and easy to over-read.
Wallet labelling and "smart money" flow analytics across 500M+ labelled addresses.
The label set is the moat and it is genuinely hard to replicate. Worth it if you actually act on flow data; overkill if you are reading it as entertainment. The price came down enormously from the US$999/mo days.
Strengths: Unmatched wallet labels · Much cheaper than it was
Weaknesses: Credit-based API burns fast · Smart-money following is a strategy, not a signal
- Pricing
- Free tier; Pro from ~US$49/mo
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —
Entity-level blockchain intelligence — attributes addresses to real-world entities and visualises fund flows.
The best free tool for tracing where money actually went after an exploit. Treat entity attributions as claims to verify, not as findings of fact — that distinction matters if you plan to publish.
Strengths: Most core features free · Excellent flow visualiser
Weaknesses: Attributions are probabilistic · Runs its own exchange, so consider the incentives
- Pricing
- Mostly free; Pro tiers and API access available
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —
TVL, chain and protocol analytics, plus a widely-cited hacks database.
Indispensable and quietly the most-misused API in the industry. The free tier is licensed for personal, non-commercial use only — a fact that surprises most of the sites republishing its data. We use their hacks feed to decide what to research, and publish nothing from it.
Strengths: Deepest TVL coverage · Excellent hacks dataset
Weaknesses: Free API is non-commercial · ETF endpoints are hard-paywalled
- Pricing
- Free API for personal use; commercial API ~US$300/mo
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —
Tax
The unglamorous part that determines whether you actually kept anything.
Koinly ↗
Free tierCrypto tax software with strong Australian support: ATO-format reports, CGT discount handling, exchange imports.
Dominates "crypto tax Australia" search results for a reason — the ATO report output is genuinely correct and the exchange importers mostly work. Check the staking-income classification by hand; that is where the errors hide.
Strengths: ATO-native reports · Handles the 12-month CGT discount properly
Weaknesses: Import reconciliation still needs manual work · Costs scale with transaction count
- Pricing
- Free to preview; paid to generate reports
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —
Australian-built crypto tax software covering DeFi, staking and NFT transactions under ATO rules.
Australian-built, and it shows in how it handles the awkward edges — DeFi swaps, liquidity positions, staking income timing. Stronger than Koinly on complex on-chain activity, less polished on plain exchange imports.
Strengths: Best DeFi transaction handling · Built for the ATO regime
Weaknesses: No free report tier · Steeper learning curve
- Pricing
- Paid, tiered by transaction count
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —
Custody
Removing the exchange from the equation. Our incident tracker is the argument for it.
Hardware wallets that keep private keys on a dedicated secure element, offline.
Self-custody is the only way to hold crypto that no exchange failure can touch, and the case files on our incident tracker are the argument. Note that Ledger suffered a customer-data breach in 2020 — that exposed names and addresses, not keys, but it is why you should never respond to a Ledger "seed verification" email. Ledger will never ask for your recovery phrase. Nobody legitimate ever will.
Strengths: Removes exchange counterparty risk · Secure element, widely audited
Weaknesses: 2020 customer-data breach drove years of phishing · You become your own single point of failure
- Pricing
- Hardware purchase
- Chains
- Multichain
Reviewed —