How to DYOR

Building a sound long-term investment thesis requires understanding both the technology and its practical applications. The crypto space is filled with impressive-sounding innovations, but not all technological advances translate into valuable or necessary products.

Research helps investors distinguish between temporary hype cycles that will eventually fade and genuine long-term potential that could drive sustainable growth. This distinction becomes particularly valuable during market downturns, as conviction built through thorough research helps investors maintain positions when weaker hands are selling in panic.

Do Your Own Research (DYOR) emphasizes the importance of individual investigation before committing capital. In a space where information asymmetry is common and traditional financial gatekeepers are absent, DYOR represents both self-protection and community responsibility.

This article outlines the systematic approaches investors can take to evaluate crypto projects, covering everything from technical assessment and team evaluation to tokenomics analysis and community engagement.

And if you’ve missed it, this is part of a broader series on getting to grips with DeFi, breaks down the key ideas and technologies behind DeFi. From smart contracts that automate complex agreements to innovations like CoW Protocol that protect users from the hidden costs of trading - we'll look at what's being built, how it works, and why it matters.

Define Your Research Goals

Long-term investors need to focus on fundamentals like technology innovation, team capabilities, and market fit, while traders might prioritize technical patterns, market sentiment, and upcoming catalysts.

When examining a project's technology, determine whether you're evaluating its innovation relative to existing solutions or its practical utility for solving real-world problems. Many crypto projects feature impressive technical specifications but address problems that don't genuinely require blockchain solutions.

The focus of your tokenomics analysis should also be clearly defined. Are you primarily concerned with token distribution, utility within the ecosystem, value capture mechanisms, or governance rights? Each of these aspects requires different analytical frameworks. By establishing clear objectives before beginning your research, you can better prioritize information and avoid becoming overwhelmed by the vast amount of data available for each project.

Analyze the Fundamentals

Team Assessment

The people behind a cryptocurrency project often determine its success or failure more than any other factor – though it’s also normal for teams to remain anonymous. If possible, try to uncover any available details about the history of the creators behind a project – for example, by tracking the history of their pseudonymous personas across channels like Discord, GitHub, and others.

Tokenomics

The economic model of a cryptocurrency can make or break its long-term viability, regardless of the underlying technology. Review the token distribution model and allocation percentages to understand who holds the power in the ecosystem. Projects that heavily favor team members, insiders, and venture capitalists may be designed primarily to enrich early participants rather than build sustainable value for all token holders.

Examine vesting schedules for team and investor tokens to assess potential selling pressure. Short or non-existent lockup periods can lead to dramatic price declines when insiders are able to sell their holdings. Understanding the token's utility and how it captures value is critical—does the token have a genuine reason to exist within the ecosystem, or is it an unnecessary addition to an otherwise functional system?

Analyze total supply, circulating supply, and inflation/deflation mechanisms to gauge how token value might evolve over time. High inflation rates can significantly dilute holder value, while well-designed deflation can create sustainable price appreciation if demand remains steady.

Problem and Solution

Every legitimate cryptocurrency project should clearly identify the specific problem it aims to solve.

Evaluate whether this problem is significant enough to warrant a solution and whether blockchain technology is truly necessary to address it. Many projects force blockchain integration into problems that could be more efficiently solved with traditional technologies.

Consider if the project's approach is novel or simply repackaging existing solutions with minimal improvements. True innovation creates competitive advantages that can sustain value over time. Assess the size of the potential market and realistic adoption barriers—even excellent solutions face challenges in gaining traction, particularly when competing against established alternatives or requiring significant changes in user behavior. If in doubt, ask the projects themselves for this information. Join Discord / Telegram channels and ask questions. Good teams should be willing to share this information. Bad teams won't.

Technical Evaluation

Codebase Analysis

A project's GitHub repository often reveals more truth than its marketing materials. Active development with regular contributions suggests a committed team working to improve the product, while infrequent updates or abandoned repositories serve as major red flags.

When examining a project's codebase, check whether it's open-source and properly documented. Closed-source projects ask investors to trust the developers' claims about functionality without verification, significantly increasing risk. Well-documented code indicates professionalism and consideration for other developers who might contribute to the project.

Security audits by reputable firms provide an additional layer of verification.

Look for comprehensive audits from established companies like CertiK, Hacken, or PeckShield rather than superficial reviews from unknown entities. Multiple audits from different firms offer stronger security assurance than a single review. Pay attention to how the development team responds to reported issues – transparent acknowledgment and quick fixes demonstrate responsibility, while dismissive attitudes or slow responses suggest potential governance problems.

Technical Roadmap

A well-designed roadmap provides insight into a project's future direction and the team's ability to set realistic goals. Review the development roadmap and compare it against past milestone achievements to gauge whether the team consistently delivers on promises. Projects with a history of missed deadlines or scaled-back features often continue this pattern.

Community and Ecosystem Evaluation

A project's community often reflects its long-term prospects more accurately than its price chart. Vibrant, engaged communities typically sustain projects through market downturns, while inactive or toxic communities frequently correlate with abandoned development and eventual failure.

When evaluating a project's community, gauge engagement levels across platforms like Reddit, Discord, Telegram, and Twitter.

The substance of community discussions provides particularly valuable insights. High-quality communities feature technical discussions, constructive criticism, and problem-solving conversations between users and team members.

Developer Ecosystem

For platforms and protocols aiming to support third-party development, the health of their developer ecosystem serves as a critical indicator of future success.

Research the number of active developers building on the platform, as larger and growing developer communities create network effects that can drive long-term adoption.

Don't just accept the project's claims about developer interest—look for tangible evidence like GitHub activity, hackathon participation, and independent applications being built on the platform.

Documentation and Review

Systematic documentation of your research findings creates valuable reference material for future decisions and helps identify patterns in your analytical process. Creating a structured template for evaluating different projects enforces consistency and reduces the influence of changing market sentiment on your assessments.

Effective templates include sections for team analysis, technology evaluation, tokenomics, competitive positioning, and risk factors, with consistent rating systems to facilitate comparisons across different investments.

When documenting your findings, make a deliberate effort to note both positive aspects and concerns for balanced assessment. The strongest research acknowledges limitations and risks even in promising projects rather than presenting one-sided evaluations. This balance helps counter confirmation bias and creates more reliable decision-making frameworks.

Dating your research creates a valuable historical record that demonstrates how your understanding evolves alongside market developments. Revisiting previous research when significant developments occur helps identify which aspects of your analysis proved accurate and which missed important factors. This iterative process strengthens your research skills over time and helps identify personal analytical blindspots.

Perhaps most importantly, compare your findings against your initial investment thesis to ensure alignment between research and action. Research that contradicts your initial thesis should prompt reconsideration of positions rather than selective interpretation to support existing views. The discipline to adjust positions based on evidence rather than emotions distinguishes successful long-term investors from those who fall victim to behavioral biases and market cycles.

Market Analysis Tools

Comprehensive market data is the foundation of any solid research strategy. Data aggregators provide essential price information, market capitalization rankings, and trading volumes across hundreds of exchanges:

• CoinGecko - Tracks 12,000+ cryptocurrencies with detailed market data

• CoinMarketCap - Industry standard for market capitalization rankings

• Messari - Institutional-grade research and market intelligence

Technical analysis is crucial for identifying potential entry and exit points. Advanced charting platforms like TradingView offer customizable indicators and pattern recognition tools that can help visualize market trends. For traders looking to gauge market sentiment, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index provides a simple metric to understand when the market might be overheated or undervalued.

Specialized market screeners have emerged as powerful tools for identifying trading opportunities:

• DYOR.net - Crypto screener that analyzes trend patterns every 15 minutes

• CryptoQuant - Focuses on exchange flows and whale movements

• LunarCrush - Correlates social activity with price movements

Blockchain Intelligence

On-chain analysis has revolutionized cryptocurrency research by providing unprecedented transparency into blockchain activity. Several platforms now offer sophisticated metrics that go far beyond basic transaction data:

Glassnode stands out for its advanced on-chain metrics and intelligence for Bitcoin and Ethereum. The platform's insights into network value, holder behavior, and market cycles have become essential for serious investors developing long-term theses.

Blockchain explorers provide windows into transaction activity and serve as vital verification tools:

• Etherscan - The gold standard for Ethereum blockchain exploration

• BscScan - Essential tool for Binance Smart Chain research

• Solscan - Comprehensive Solana blockchain explorer

• Snowtrace - Detailed analytics for Avalanche network

The DeFi landscape requires specialized tools to track the complex interrelationships between protocols:

• DefiLlama monitors Total Value Locked (TVL) across 800+ DeFi protocols and 80+ blockchains, providing crucial insights into liquidity trends.

• For project-specific metrics, Token Terminal offers financial data that treats crypto protocols like traditional companies, making fundamental analysis more accessible even for those with traditional finance backgrounds.

Security and Risk Assessment

• CertiK (www.certik.com) maintains the most comprehensive security leaderboard of audited projects, scoring them based on multiple risk factors beyond just code quality. Their assessments include governance risks, centralization concerns, and historical security incidents to provide a more holistic view of potential vulnerabilities.

• For investors seeking additional verification, Hacken (hacken.io) offers thorough blockchain security assessments that often catch issues other auditors miss, while PeckShield (peckshield.com) specializes in security intelligence that tracks emerging threats across the ecosystem in real-time.

Project Evaluation Resources

The github repository of a project reveals far more about its health and potential than most marketing materials. Active development signals ongoing improvement and adaptation, while abandoned repositories often indicate projects that exist primarily for speculation rather than genuine utility.

• CryptoMiso (www.cryptomiso.com) ranks cryptocurrencies based on their GitHub commit history, providing an accessible overview of which projects maintain active development.

• For more nuanced analysis, Santiment's Development Activity metric (app.santiment.net/dashboards/development-activity) filters out non-development activities like documentation updates to focus specifically on code-related changes, offering a clearer picture of actual technical progress.

Tokenomics analysis requires examining distribution patterns and vesting schedules that could impact future price action.

• Token Unlocks (token.unlocks.app) has become the standard tool for monitoring vesting schedules and upcoming unlock events that might increase selling pressure on a token's price.

• For those concerned about concentration risk, Nansen (www.nansen.ai) offers wallet profiling and token holder behavior analysis that can reveal whether a seemingly decentralized project is actually controlled by a small number of addresses working in concert.

The governance mechanisms of a project reveal much about its true decentralization and decision-making processes. Well-designed governance empowers community members while preventing capture by wealthy token holders or insider groups.

• Boardroom (boardroom.io) provides dashboards for monitoring governance activities across multiple protocols, showing proposal histories, voting patterns, and participation rates that help assess whether governance is functioning as intended.

• For those looking to participate in governance directly, Tally (www.tally.xyz) offers user-friendly interfaces for creating and voting on proposals, making governance more accessible to average users rather than just large stakeholders and technical experts.

Portfolio and Research Management

Keeping track of investments across multiple chains and protocols has become increasingly complex. Modern portfolio tools help simplify this process:

• CoinStats integrates with 70+ wallets and 400+ exchanges to provide comprehensive portfolio tracking

• Zapper specializes in DeFi positions across multiple chains.

• For those interested in following expert investors, Arkham Intelligence offers tools to track whale wallets and institutional movements.

Research publications provide professional analysis that can supplement your own findings:

• Messari Research - In-depth reports on specific sectors

• The Block Research - Market intelligence and analysis

• Delphi Digital - Institutional-grade research reports

These publications often provide context and comparative analysis that would be difficult for individual researchers to compile, making them valuable additions to your DYOR process.

Conclusion

Building a robust long-term investment thesis in the crypto space is an ongoing journey that demands discipline and a commitment to thorough research. By systematically evaluating a project's technology, team, tokenomics, and community engagement, investors can cut through the noise of fleeting trends and identify genuine potential.

The "Do Your Own Research" (DYOR) ethos empowers individuals to make informed decisions, navigate market volatility with conviction, and ultimately position themselves for sustainable growth. The tools and methodologies outlined in this article are not just theoretical frameworks; they are practical guides designed to transform speculative impulses into strategic investments, ensuring your participation in the crypto economy is both informed and resilient.