Recently, the community has been arguing whether the extreme funding rate is about to reverse or if the bubble will continue to be squeezed.

I'm actually more interested in "whether the project is trustworthy" as a slow variable...
Beginners should learn to read GitHub, audits, and upgrade multi-signatures.
Honestly, don’t be scared by star marks or big-name audits.

I personally will take a quick look at:
Is the repository only active and changing suddenly before and after token issuance, and is there a continuous development rhythm?
Does the audit report clearly state high-risk issues, and are subsequent fixes matching the commits?
Who holds the upgrade permissions, how many people are multi-signing, what’s the threshold, and is there a timelock (giving you reaction time before they run off)?
These things don’t guarantee no losses, but at least they can filter out some basic pitfalls like "one-click upgrade rule changes"...
Anyway, I’d rather miss out now than rely on luck to get through.