Newbies want to check a project's "credibility," don't just stare at the candlestick charts and listen to hype; first look at three things: GitHub, audit reports, and upgrade multi-signatures.

GitHub isn't about the number of stars, look at whether they have truly been updating code recently, whether there are security issues raised in issues, whether the team responds; if they haven't moved for months but keep posting collaboration posters every day, you know what that means.
Don't treat audit reports as a talisman either; focus on whether there are "unresolved/known risks," and whether the audit scope only covered superficial areas.
Next is upgrade permissions: can the contract be modified at will?
Add multiple signers, are they independent, is there a delay (timelock)... this is much more meaningful than just saying "the ecosystem is big."
Recently, AI Agent + automated trading are being hyped up, but I care more about who they give private keys/authorizations to, who takes the blame if the bot malfunctions, narratives are flexible, once permissions are open, they can't be reversed.
That's all for now.