Every day, thousands of new tokens launch across blockchains like Solana, Ethereum, and BSC. The vast majority of them will die. But how do you tell if a token is already dead, or just having a bad week?
This guide walks you through the key indicators we use at Is The Token Dead to calculate a token’s death score.
What Does “Dead” Mean in Crypto?
A dead token isn’t just one that dropped in price. A token is dead when it has lost the fundamental infrastructure needed to function as a tradeable asset:
- No liquidity — You literally cannot sell it
- No trading volume — Nobody is buying or selling
- No active holders — Wallets have abandoned it
- No development — The team has disappeared
A 90% price drop doesn’t necessarily make a token dead. Bitcoin dropped 80% multiple times and recovered. The difference is that dead tokens lack the liquidity and community to ever recover.
The Key Signs a Token Is Dead
1. Liquidity Has Evaporated
Liquidity is the lifeblood of any token. When a token’s liquidity pool drops below a few hundred dollars, it becomes effectively untradeable. Check the token’s liquidity on DexScreener or Birdeye. If it’s under $1,000, the token is on life support.
2. 24-Hour Volume Is Near Zero
Healthy tokens have consistent trading activity. If a token that once had thousands of dollars in daily volume now shows less than $100, traders have moved on. You can check any token’s status instantly on our tool.
3. Holder Count Is Declining
When holders are selling and not being replaced by new buyers, the token is bleeding out. A token with fewer than 10 active holders is essentially abandoned.
4. The Price Chart Is a Cliff
A sudden 95-99% drop followed by a flatline is the classic death pattern. This usually indicates a rug pull or a massive sell-off by insiders.
5. Honeypot or Rug Pull Flags
Some tokens are designed to steal your money. A honeypot lets you buy but blocks you from selling. A rug pull is when the developer drains the liquidity pool. Both are fatal and irreversible. Our tool checks for these flags automatically.
6. Mint Authority or Freeze Authority Is Enabled
On Solana, tokens with active mint authority can have their supply inflated at any time by the creator. Freeze authority means the creator can freeze your tokens in your wallet. Both are major red flags.
How Our Death Score Works
At Is The Token Dead, we combine all these signals into a single death score from 0 to 100:
- 0-30: Thriving or alive — healthy metrics across the board
- 30-60: Showing weakness — some concerning metrics
- 60-80: Dying — serious issues with liquidity, volume, or holders
- 80-100: Dead — effectively untradeable or confirmed scam
The score is calculated server-side using real-time on-chain data. We check six blockchains: Solana, Ethereum, Base, BSC, Arbitrum, and Polygon.
What to Do If You Hold a Dead Token
If you’ve checked a token and it scores 80+, here’s the reality:
- Accept the loss — Don’t throw good money after bad
- Check for honeypot — If you can’t sell, the token is a scam
- Report it — Help others avoid the same trap
- Learn from it — Use tools like ours to check tokens before buying
Visit the Token Graveyard to see the most notorious dead tokens, or check the Weekly Recap for the latest casualties.
Prevention Is Better Than a Funeral
The best defense against dead tokens is due diligence:
- Always check a token’s liquidity and holder count before buying
- Look for locked liquidity (and verify the lock isn’t controlled by the dev)
- Be skeptical of tokens with enabled mint or freeze authority
- Use Is The Token Dead to get an instant health check
The crypto space moves fast, but taking 10 seconds to check a token can save you from holding a bag of digital dust.