Method — Kindling

The four evidence checks

DEX first pair. We take the earliest pairCreatedAt among the pools DexScreener currently returns for a mint. This is not mint creation time.
Liquidity present. We show liquidity from the returned pool with the greatest USD liquidity. Presence is evidence of a market, not legitimacy.
Website attached. A project link in DexScreener metadata is useful context. Anyone able to update token metadata may influence it.
Social attached. The displayed social link is reported metadata, not an identity check by Kindling.

How candidates are ordered

Search results are deduplicated by base-token mint. Exact ticker, name, or mint matches come before fuzzy matches; within those groups, earlier returned DEX pairs come first. Shared comparisons are ordered only by that earliest pair time.

How the case brief works

A shared comparison labels the earliest returned pair, the candidate with the largest reported pool liquidity, and the candidate with the most complete set of four evidence checks. Observed lag is measured from the earliest pair timestamp in that case. Ties are shown. These are simple comparisons of displayed fields—not a confidence, safety, or originality score.

Why pool numbers can disagree

One token can trade in several pools. Kindling chooses the pool with the largest reported USD liquidity for liquidity, 24-hour volume, market cap or FDV fallback, and the DEX link. The pair count tells you how many pools were returned. Inspect the DEX view before relying on one market.

The strongest check is elsewhere

Find the full mint on a channel demonstrably controlled by the project, then compare every character. A familiar name, image, ticker, old pool, website, or social link cannot establish an “official” contract by itself.

Data and privacy