Lately, when I see a project, I actually end up paying close attention to whether the national treasury spending and the milestones line up. To put it plainly: it’s normal for money to get spent, but it’s concerning when they say “Mainnet launch next month” while the treasury is sending funds to a whole bunch of outsourcing firms, consultants, and marketing accounts, yet the R&D-related expenses are as thin as paper… In that kind of situation, I get a little panicky.

Usually, I start by checking whether the milestones they write down include things that can be verified: code updates, testnet data, documentation, audit progress—whether they can match the spending schedule. And then there’s the granularity of the spending: if it’s too much of a “bundled quote,” I’ll screenshot it and save it first, then revisit it after two weeks to see if there are any new explanations (since, honestly, I can’t seem to change this habit).

Recently, on-chain data tools and tagging systems have also been criticized for being lagging or potentially misleading, and I agree. Tags are only for reference; the key is to go through the transfer paths and timeline yourself, otherwise it’s really easy to get led by the nose. Be cautious—accumulate experience slowly. It’s better to miss out than to end up being taken advantage of.