How to Research a Crypto Company Before Applying

Why research matters more in crypto

Teams form and fold quickly, projects rebrand, and fake job offers are a common way to target people with wallet scams. Before you write an application, spend twenty minutes confirming that the company is real, active and building something, and that the role is posted by the company itself.

Step 1: confirm the official identity

1. Find the official website and check that it links to the official X account, and that the X account links back to the same website. Impersonation accounts often get one side of this wrong.
2. Make sure the job is listed on the company's own careers page. If you found it elsewhere, look for the same role on their site.
3. Check that the recruiter's email uses the company's domain. Treat Telegram-only "recruiters" with caution.

Step 2: check that the product exists and is used

• Try the app or read the docs. A live product with current docs is a better sign than a roadmap.
• For DeFi protocols, look up the project on DefiLlama to see whether there is real value locked and how it changed over time.
• For open-source work, check the public GitHub organization for recent commits from several contributors.

Step 3: check recent activity

An abandoned project can keep an old careers page online for months. Look at the date of the last product update, the last blog post and the last original posts on X. Long silence combined with old job listings is a warning sign.

Step 4: check the team and backers

• Can you identify founders or leadership by name, with work history that is consistent across their public profiles?
• If the company claims investors, check that the investors list the company in their own portfolio or announcements.
• Look for team members in the role's department. A single public employee for a company claiming 100 is worth questioning.

Step 5: check security history

Search for the project name together with "exploit" or "hack", and check incident write-ups on rekt.news. A past incident is not automatically disqualifying; how the team responded, compensated users and published a post-mortem tells you a lot about the culture you would be joining. For smart-contract projects, look for published audit reports on the project's own site.

Step 6: understand the business model

Ask how the company makes money: fees, subscriptions, services, or only a token. Companies whose only revenue is selling their own token are more exposed to market swings, which can affect job stability. It is fair to ask about runway in a later interview.

Using Sniper to speed this up

Sniper is wwshemi's research feed of crypto projects found on X and in public project registries. It brings several of the checks above into one profile:

• Verified links. Project websites are checked regularly for a link back to the project's X account; websites that do not match are not shown as the project's site.
• Activity status. Projects that stop posting for a year, or whose X account disappears, are marked as inactive (Memorial) instead of being presented as live.
• Category and chain, so you can filter to the part of the market you want to work in.
• Score level and trend, a simple read of how a project's traction is moving.
• Hiring signals and open roles linked to the employer's own job pages.
• Rebrand tracking, so a renamed project points to its new identity.
• Watchlist, to follow projects you are considering.

Sniper is a paid feature. You can see how it works on the Sniper page and compare plans on pricing. A Sniper profile is a starting point, not a verdict: still do steps 1 and 5 yourself before you share personal information with any employer.

Red flags that should stop you

• Being asked to pay for training, equipment or a "verification" fee
• Being asked to connect your wallet, install unknown software or sign a transaction as part of a test
• A job offer without any interview
• Recruiters who refuse to communicate through a company email or official channel