Buyer Education · Public Catalog · CC0

Red Flag Catalog

A categorized, evidence-based catalog of presale patterns that hurt buyers. Each entry cites public sources. No project is named that hasn't published the language itself. The patterns are the lesson.

Catalog Version
v0.1
Initial Public Release
Entries
5
2 case-study · 3 pattern
Critical
2
Multi-flag projects
High
3
Single-flag patterns
Update Cadence
Weekly
Mondays · Mon cadence
License
CC0
Public domain · fork freely
TL;DR

Patterns, not personalities.

Crypto presales fail in recurring ways. The patterns are visible before you send money if you know what to look for. This catalog documents those patterns so buyers can evaluate any presale against a known checklist — not vibes.

The catalog is opinionated but evidence-based. Each entry cites public sources. No project is named that hasn't put the language in their own public marketing.

Method

How an entry gets in.

Inclusion Criteria

The catalog only references publicly published material. Quoted language is taken from a project's own website, X.com posts, presale aggregator listings, or other public marketing channels. We do not name projects based on third-party rumors, anonymous tips, or unverified social posts. If a project's own marketing is the source, the project can be named (and often is — by themselves, in their own posts).

Severity Tiers

🔴 Critical — multiple red flags present in a single project. 🟡 High — single-flag pattern, easy to spot, easy to fix. 🔵 Info — informational pattern, not necessarily a flag, useful for context.

Naming Policy

Projects are referenced by the patterns in their own public marketing. Where the patterns are described structurally, the project is left anonymous. Where a project has named itself in its own urgency language, the language is reproduced with attribution.

Catalog Entries

What we've seen.

Entry 001
🔴 Critical

Promised Returns + Self-Referential Pricing + Batch Claims Treadmill

Category: Promised returns · Self-referential pricing · Vesting fraud
Source (public on X): Multiple posts from a single project account on X.com. The patterns are described structurally, not by name.

"🚨 LIMITED TIME 25% OFF MARKET PRICE: BUY [TOKEN] AT $0.00000044 • SELL AT $0.01 • 30X ROI 🚨"

"🚨 25% OFF MARKET PRICE — LIVE NOW 🚨"

"BATCH 7 CLAIMS START WEDNESDAY"

  1. 30X ROI is a guaranteed return. Legitimate projects don't promise multiples. "ROI" implies the project controls the eventual price. They don't. Anyone promising "30X" is selling a promise, not a token.
  2. "25% off market price" is self-referential. The only "market" that exists at presale is the presale itself. "25% off" implies a different, larger market exists when it doesn't. The pricing is circular: the presale defines the floor and then claims the next tier is a discount relative to a fictional spot price.
  3. "Batch 7" is the rug-pull treadmill. Take money, release a little, take more, repeat. Each batch is a fresh liquidity event for the operators. Real vesting schedules don't work in "batches" — they work in continuous linear unlock.
  4. "Limited time" / "LIVE NOW" is urgency manipulation. SEC-relevant language. Designed to short-circuit the buyer's deliberation.
The legitimate version

Token price is defined by the curve in our vesting contract. Buy at the curve price during the open phase. Vesting is continuous and linear from TGE. There is no "discount" — there is the curve. There is no "limited time" — there is the open phase of the presale. We do not promise returns. We publish the math; the market decides the price.

Entry 002
🔴 Critical

$48M Raise with No Audit, No MVP, No Bounty

Category: Missing diligence artifacts · Unverifiable claims · Marketing-driven design
Source (public on a presale aggregator): A listing on a public crypto presale aggregator website. The patterns are described structurally, not by name.

What they claim: $48,825,000 raise target. PoS blockchain. AI-enhanced. Scalable.

What the listing shows:

  • Whitelist: Yes
  • KYC: Yes
  • Audit: No
  • MVP: No
  • Bounty: No
  • Type: ICO
  1. A $48M raise without an audit is extraordinary. Either they have the audit and didn't post it (signal: don't care about credibility), or they don't have one (signal: code isn't reviewed). Either way, the buyer is taking $48M of code risk.
  2. No MVP is a marketing claim, not a product. "AI-enhanced PoS blockchain" is a category, not a product. Without an MVP, there is no code in production, no testable throughput, no demonstrated consensus, no documented AI integration. The $48M target is being raised on a whitepaper and a roadmap.
  3. No bug bounty means no crowd-sourced review. Even if the code exists, nobody is being paid to find bugs. The incentive structure is: code ships → users find bugs → users lose money. That's the worst possible arrangement.
  4. KYC + Audit is the minimum pairing for legitimate raises. KYC verifies identity (who you're sending money to). Audit verifies code (what you're getting). Without both, you have a sender and a promise.
The legitimate version

We're raising $X. Audit by [CertiK / Hacken / OpenZeppelin / Solidity Finance — pick one] — report published at launch. MVP is live at [URL] with [concrete metrics: X transactions, Y TPS, Z uptime]. Bug bounty pool of $K published on [Code Arena / Cantina / Immunefi].

Entry 003
🟡 High

"Verifiable On-Chain" Without Wallet Disclosure

Category: Unverifiable claims · Generic pattern

A project says "treasury is on-chain" or "all transactions verifiable." But they don't publish:

  • The treasury wallet address
  • The team wallet addresses
  • The vesting contract addresses
  • The audit firm's verification link

If the wallets aren't linked, the claim isn't checkable. The phrase "on-chain" does work by itself — a hidden wallet is on-chain but invisible.

The legitimate version

Treasury wallet: 0x... (link to Etherscan / PolygonScan). Team wallets: 0x..., 0x..., etc. Vesting contract: 0x.... Audit verification: [firm link]. All addresses verified at launch and updated at every change.

Entry 004
🟡 High

Halt-on-Fail Audit Commitment (or Lack Thereof)

Category: Promised returns (implicit) · Audit-after-funds · Generic pattern

Most projects run their audit after taking presale money. The structure is:

  1. Open presale
  2. Collect funds
  3. Run audit
  4. Either pass (keep funds) or fail (return funds — sometimes, slowly, with delays)

This is structurally identical to "we'll evaluate whether your money is safe after you've sent it." It's not fraud, but it's not confidence either.

The legitimate version

The presale funds are held in a contract that does not allow withdrawal until the Tier-1 audit is complete and the report is published. If the audit finds a critical issue, the contract refunds all contributors automatically. The halting condition is binding and verifiable on-chain.

Entry 005
🟡 High

"Don't Miss Out" · "Last Chance" · "Limited Time"

Category: Urgency manipulation · Generic pattern

SEC enforcement target. Creates artificial time pressure that overrides deliberation. Legitimate presales have open phases; they don't run flash sales.

The legitimate version

The presale runs from [start date] to [end date]. The schedule is published. There are no flash sales.

How to Use

Run any presale through this catalog.

  1. Find the project's public marketing posts and website.
  2. Run each post through this catalog. Look for the patterns, not the words.
  3. If you find 3+ entries matched: walk away.
  4. If you find 1-2 entries matched: ask specific questions in their public channel (not DM — public answers are accountable answers).
  5. If you find 0 entries matched: run the 12-Point Due Diligence Checklist instead. Zero catalog hits ≠ safe.
Legal & Disclosures

Regulatory Notices

This catalog is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not financial advice, not a recommendation to buy or sell any specific token, and not a statement that any specific project is fraudulent. The patterns documented are structural observations about recurring marketing and contract designs. Each entry cites public sources and reproduces quoted language under fair-use principles for the purpose of public education about crypto presale risk.
No U.S. marketing permitted. KODA is offered under Regulation S of the Securities Act of 1933. The KODA coordination layer and this catalog are not offered to, marketed to, or intended for U.S. persons. This catalog is published for the global crypto presale buyer education community. Access controls on the KODA presale itself enforce the Reg S boundary; readers of this catalog are responsible for their own jurisdictional compliance.
Intellectual property: The Red Flag Catalog text is dedicated to the public domain under CC0. Anyone may reproduce, fork, translate, or republish the catalog content without permission. The KODA site design and presentation are part of the KODA brand system and should be credited as koda.myhomeid.network when referenced externally.