If you have been reading current events on Web 3 discussion groups, you would be aware that a recently launched token has lately sparked a lot of discussion in the Philippine Web3 community. Blockchain developers, crypto natives, investors, traders, and community leaders shared their sentiments on the possible cause of its crash. The token is known as LodiCoin, which was endorsed before by Filipino social media personality, Rob Moya. On September 20, 2022, Lodicoin launched its token, $LODI. 

What is LodiCoin?

LodiCoin is a "Filipino-based cultural utility token", a play-to-earn app, and a social media app that enables users to create NFTs and gain rewards by participating in their social media platform.  

Building Up Hype

The team behind LodiCoin has been actively advertising their project to the community in different social media channels. One such way is by conducting AMAs on their Discord server and Twitter spaces. LodiCoin COO, Richard Calunsod, has also been active in promoting LodiCoin in different cities in the Philippines including Manila, Iloilo and Davao City. They also partnered with Rob Moya to promote their project to his followers. As a result, they have amassed more than 13,000 discord users, 23,000 likes on their Facebook page, and more than 28,000 followers on Twitter. 

However, despite their marketing efforts, the team was vaguely answering questions regarding technical information about their project such as having a liquidity pool and locking up presale tokens.

Before the Launch

LodiCoin ($LODI) was announced to launch in PancakeSwap on the Binance Smart Chain on September 15. LodiCoin CEO, Jason Steele, was advertising to pump the price of $LODI up before their planned token launch. The launch was then delayed to September 20. 

In a presale conducted beforehand, the price was set to $0.005 for investors to buy $LODI before listing on PancakeSwap, and the funds were collected via GCash, a clear red flag in the crypto space.

Token Listing

When they finally launched, the listing price was surprisingly only $0.001, already an 80% drop from $0.005! Additionally, the token only had a liquidity pool of $15,000, meaning that the current value of the token is $15,000 and if a person sells exactly $15,000 worth of $LODI, the value would be 0. This small pool contributed to the large price drop that followed.

In less than an hour after listing on PancakeSwap, the price of $LODI dropped even further by 99%, from an opening price of $0.001 to a low of $0.00002152. That's a lot of zeros. A few hours later, Steele goes on Tiktok to blame Filipino investors for being "ignorant" and "super toxic" for selling their coins too early which caused $LODI to drop by 99%. He also justifies that investors should not sell their LodiCoins because it is a bear market. 

Bypassing all the complexities, one doesn't need to be a blockchain expert in order to assess whether a project is worth investing in. A simple background check and review of its utility is enough to spot red flags of a project. You can start by answering basic questions such as the problem it can solve and what value it can bring to the community. Here's a few reminders to take note of before investing in a project:

Reminders Before Investing In A Crypto Project

1. DYOR
   Do your own research (DYOR). Reading posts from reliable sources about the project and doing your own way of knowing more about the project is the best way to arm yourself against projects that may end up like LodiCoin. 

2. If It's Too Good To Be True, It Probably Is
   Approach investing rationally and disregard emotions as much as possible. If the project seems to be overpromising but shows no signs of delivery, or talks too much about "pumping" and "mooning" the price, then that raises a few red flags already. 

3. Trust But Verify
   There is nothing wrong in trusting a team to do well on their promises and believing them to act in good faith. However, if we decide to trust, then we must also verify. 

• Is the team's reputation excellent?
• How do they treat their community members?
• Are their investors really invested in the project?
• Are their partners trustworthy?
  
  Asking questions like these will lead to answers that will change or reinforce your perception about the project. 

4. Do not invest more than you are willing to lose
   This is a core tenet of investing and should not be taken lightly. LodiCoin's price dropped  99%. Essentially, the value of the investors' money who bought their coin before listing has gone to 0. Imagine if you had invested your life's savings in LodiCoin before they listed compared to if you had invested only 1%. 

Where Did It Go Wrong? 

Even before the project's token launch, numerous signs had indicated how questionable the project is from the way they advertised their project to haphazardly launching their token. 

But at the end of the day, we are accountable for our own financial choices. Although we have no control over a project's intentions, we can always decide to be prudent and exercise caution before investing our hard-earned money in any investment vehicle. 

Always do your own due diligence before investing and never do so just because so-called influencers are pushing a project. As cliché as it may sound, only invest what you can afford to lose. May this be a lesson learned for everyone.