How to check a token contract

People hunting new DeFi projects usually meet a ticker first. Tickers are short, and they get copied. The contract address is the long hex string that points at one token on one chain. This lesson is how to read that address on ZyCrypto.

It is lesson 3 of the DeFi swap lessons. It is not a suggestion to buy a new token.

The lesson series

1. Start here
2. What a decentralized swap is
3. How to keep a wallet safe
4. How to check a token contract (this page)
5. The fee and the price move
6. The seven chains
7. Your first swap

The name is the weak check

A new project can launch with a ticker that matches an older coin, or a spelling that is one letter off. A website, a chat, and a logo can all use the famous name. None of those is the contract.

On a single chain, the contract address is the check. The same ticker on another chain is often a different address. Pepe on Ethereum is 0x6982508145454Ce325dDbE47a25d4ec3d2311933. Pepe on Arbitrum is a different contract. If you only match the word PEPE, you have not checked the coin.

What the desk shows

• Under the sell coin and the buy coin: the short address, and the dollar price of one token
• In the coin list: the same address, the same price, and your balance when a wallet is connected
• Copy puts the full reviewed address on the clipboard. It does not change which coin is selected
• Search accepts the name, the ticker, or the address

The address you see is the one the swap will use. It is the reviewed contract for that symbol on that chain. There is one of those, not a box where you paste a different contract.

The dollar figure next to the coin is the token price. The figure under the amount, after you type a size, is what that trade is worth. They are different numbers. The quote still has to be read before you sign.

Two rows that are not contracts

• Native token. ETH on an EVM chain, and HYPE on HyperEVM, are the gas token. They have no contract to copy. Wrapped coins, such as WETH, do.
• Trading balance. Hyperliquid USDC is the trading balance, not a normal 40-character contract.

When the new project is missing

Paste the project's contract into search. If no reviewed coin matches, it is not available. The desk will not invent a route for an unlisted address. That is the point of a reviewed list: lookalike launches and unverified contracts stay off.

Interest in a new project is not a listing. A listing is one known contract on a chain ZyCrypto already supports.

You can still read the address on the project's own explorer. Do that before you trust a link. Do not sign a transaction from a page you did not mean to open. This desk cannot reverse one.

A short check before any swap

1. Confirm the chain. An address from Ethereum is not an address from Base.
2. Read the short address on the coin. Copy it if you want the full string.
3. Compare it with the contract you already verified, not with the ticker in a post.
4. Read the token price, then the quote. The next lesson is the fee and the price move.

The swap is at zyai.org. The first lesson is what a decentralized swap is.

Questions

Why does the ticker not identify a token? Two contracts can use the same ticker. The contract address is the identity on that chain.

Where do I see the address on ZyCrypto? On the swap card under the coin, and on every row in the coin list. Copy copies that reviewed address. Copying does not select the coin.

What if a new project is not in the list? It stays off. ZyCrypto will not swap an unlisted contract, even if you paste the address into search and nothing matches.