DYOR Guide: How to Research Altcoins Before You Invest

Introduction: DYOR Is Your Superpower in 2025

“Do Your Own Research” (DYOR) is not just the super-charged crypto slang of yesteryear, it's survival. In today’s market, DYOR is what separates the champion of wealth creation from the victim of hype.

From Speculation to Strategy

Gone are the days in crypto where you could throw money at any token with a clever name and hope to be rewarded with a moonshot. The 2025 market is an assembled battleground of difficulty and competition. Winning in the market now takes discipline, skepticism, and systematic analysis.

An avalanche of thousands of altcoins have hit the space, some are incredibly innovative, most are worthless. The challenge has become sorting the value from the vaporware. DYOR is how you do that. It’s your personal firewall, delivering shields between your capital and manipulation/noise.

The "Vaporware" Problem

There are influencers shilling this or that, anonymous teams launch “revolutionary” crypto projects overnight, and creatives build physically attractive websites to hide meaningless promises. Many projects are not created to introduce innovation, they are created just to take liquidity from you. DYOR is a shield against becoming that exit liquidity.

A Real Meaning of DYOR

DYOR is not something you can learn by skimming a website for five minutes - it is a state of mind for an investor. It requires fact checking and counseled narratives and developing your own point of view.

Think Like an Investor

Many traders lose money because they take their thinking out of their trading. Good research means to slow down and look for what is important, and challenged assumptions by asking hard questions:

• Is the team reputable?
• Is the project solving real problems?
• Is there a need for a token?

The Two Foundations: Qualitative + Quantitative

DYOR is supported by two fundamentals:

• Qualitative research (the story): the team, mission, roadmap, and reputation. 
• Quantitative research (the numbers): tokenomics, supply, and on-chain data. 
• Disregard one of them, and you are gambling, not investing.

The Qualitative Deep Dive  Understanding the Story

Every genuine project has a strong "why" to start. Before moving to data, let's examine purpose and people. 

The "Why" Test

The first thing to ask is what real-world problem does the project solve? Is it a tangible problem (scalability, interoperability, storage) or has it lined up behind buzzwords (AI-powered metaverse synergy)? Normally, when the statement begins with a series of buzzwords and jargon, it ends with empty promises.

Team Transparency

Credibility starts with visibility. If I cannot see any reasonable transparency on the team, there could be problems. If a team is wildly anonymous or an individual cannot be verified, I'm inherently taking on more risk.

Check the Footprints

Look for activities on LinkedIn and GitHub. Do these developers have commits that are real and recent? If they are anonymous, that leads to simply marketing and likely vaporware. 

The Roadmap Test

A legitimate roadmap details milestone context as to what you are looking at: Audit, mainnet, integrations, etc.  "Community growth and partnerships" are not milestones - this is filler. Ambiguity = uncertainty. 

Decoding Tokenomics: The Engine that Creates Value

Even the greatest ideas fall flat if the economics are bad. The idea behind tokenomics is to identify whether or not the project's infrastructure supports the project's long-term growth or if it is intended for short-term gains only for the insiders.

Supply Dynamics

There are three numbers that matter more than all others.

• Max Supply: The total number of tokens that will ever exist. 
• Total Supply: How many tokens have been issued to date. 
• Circulating Supply: The number of tokens available to trade in the market.  

If there is a large difference between circulating supply and max supply, it indicates future dilution from additional tokens created. A new token issuance can hit the market and then the value falls off a cliff immediately afterwards because of the excess supply.

Vesting and Cliff

A healthy vesting schedule will keep early investors and teams from dumping tokens on to the market all at once. Look for:

• Long cliff periods (6–12 months): shows long term commitment and makes it more difficult to sell without risk. 
• Linear vesting: Tokens will be released over a long period of time. 

If insiders control 50% of the supply with no or short lockups, leave.

Utility vs. Speculation

Ask the question that matters most! Does this token actually do anything?

Tokens that have actual utility, the ability to pay transaction fees, stake tokens, voting governance, etc will have organic demand for the tokens inherent to the use case. Tokens that exist simply to "go up" will ultimately go away after the hype fades. 

Product Audit  Where Code Meets Reality

Just because a project has a slick website that may or may not be live does not mean it is innovative. This phase is about ensuring what the project says it is doing, is actually doing.

Mainnet or DApp

Is there a functional mainnet or working DApp yet? Testnets and demo's are ok in the early days. Be wary of projects that say 'coming soon' until they do, and 'I think' until they're live. 

Smart Contract Audit

Is there a smart contract audit done by a reputable firm like CertiK or PeckShield? There is no excuse for not providing an audit. Not having a report means the team is comfortable with your funds as a risky investment. 

GitHub Activity

Regular commits/feature updates/bug fixes is a sign of ongoing development. If the GitHub repo does not have updates and the team has limited activity, there is a good chance it is a scam. 

Advanced On-Chain Metrics  Reading Blockchain’s Truth 

The beauty of blockchain is transparency. You can see everything on-chain if you know where to look.

Concentration Risk 

Examine how the supply is dispersed among wallets. If 10 wallets hold more than 50% of the supply, you are at the mercy of the whales. One person can dump over half of the supply during a large sell-off.

Network Heath

Track two important metrics:

• Active Addresses: If we see growth in active addresses, that particular network is achieving adoption.
• Transaction Volume: I've seen 100x transactions traded in some networks, but without consistency, it's simply noise.

If we see price surge during the same time as we didn’t see any growth from before, it is most likely pure speculation.

Realized Profits/Loss 

Nansen (https://www.nansen.ai) and Glassnode provide on-chain metrics to provide you when the 'smart money' is converting profits. If those profitable wallets begin to send tokens to an exchange, you should think there will be pressure when the assets are sold. These are all clues to sentiment changes before prices appreciably react.

The Community and Hype Filter

Community is important, but hype can be misleading. True believers vs. paid noise.

Noise vs. Signal

Follower counts do not matter. Quality conversations are around tech, governance, and real development. Healthy communities ask hard questions and focus on real content.

If chats are toxic and solely value price action ("When moon?"), then members are not committed.

The Engagement Test

Real communities change slowly and through contribution (not only hype). Fake, or manufactured, communities move quickly and disappear quickly once the token is dumped.

Conclusion: DYOR is Your Competitive Advantage

The crypto market in 2025 will reward those who think critically, question the status quo, and verify before investing. DYOR is more than a protective measure, it's your competitive advantage.

Once you embody this capability, you don’t chase trends, but rather, pursue real value. Before buying any altcoin, ask yourself:

• Do I know who the team is and do they have a track record of credibility?
• Do I know what the token intends to achieve and its supply?
• Is there real product and active development?
• Does on-chain data show healthy activity?

If you cannot answer either of these questions, your work is not done. DYOR eliminates speculative thinking, and brings order to chaos. You’re better armed than others when you are planned and informed. 

This article is contributed by an external writer: Razel Jade Hijastro.

Disclaimer: The content created by LBank Creators represents their personal perspectives. LBank does not endorse any content on this page. Readers should do their own research before taking any actions related to the company and carry full responsibility for their decisions, nor can this article be considered as investment advice.