How We Rate Crypto Farms: Ripe, Ripening or Rotten
What our three labels tell you to do next, what the 1 to 5 score measures, and the questions to ask before you put time or money into any farm.
A farm list is only useful if it tells you what to do next. Our labels answer one question: should you put time and money into this farm today? The score answers a second one: how good are its facts next to others in its category?
Quick answer
Ripe means start today. Ripening means wait. Rotten means skip. The label is our own call from farming the project. The 1 to 5 score is built from six criteria, each checked against official sources. The two can disagree, and when they do, the label is the one to act on.
What does each label tell you to do?
| Label | What to do | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Ripe | Start today | We would start today. A We farm it tag marks the ones we farm ourselves |
| Ripening | Wait | We track it and check the facts, but it is below our bar for now, even if we use it ourselves. Every new project starts here |
| Rotten | Skip | Closing, paused or not worth the effort. The project page says why |
A label is a decision, not a grade. A farm with weak facts can still be worth farming if it pays, and a farm with strong facts can still be Ripening because it has not cleared our bar yet.
What does the score measure?
Six questions, weighted by what decides each kind of product. A score compares farms inside one category only:
| Criterion | The question it answers | Prediction markets | Tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rewards | What can you earn now: points, an airdrop ahead, prizes, yield? | 20% | 5% |
| Cost | What does it cost to earn that: trading fees, subscriptions? | 15% | 20% |
| Depth | Is there enough volume or coverage to use it at your size? | 25% | 30% |
| Ease | How hard is it to start and keep going: app, mobile, onboarding, speed? | 15% | 20% |
| Access | Can you join at all: KYC, regions, invites, minimums, ways to fund? | 10% | 10% |
| Trust | What can go wrong: custody, audits, time live, incidents? | 15% | 15% |
Crypto cards and perp DEXs have their own seven criteria and a scale of 10, computed as far as possible from real numbers. Cards: custody 25%, cashback 20%, FX and conversion 15%, issuer and record 15%, fees 10%, regions 10%, phone pay and card types 5%. Perp DEXs: rewards 25%, taker fee 20%, volume 15%, safety 15%, open interest 10%, ease 10%, access 5%.
Each criterion gets 1 to 5 against written anchors for its category. On a perp DEX, for example, a taker fee of 0.02% or less is a 5 for Cost. A criterion we cannot check stays out, and a farm needs at least four to get a score. When our team scores a farm by hand, that number wins over the formula. The anchors for every category are on How we rate.
Why can a high-scoring farm be Ripening?
Because the score measures facts and the label is our call on whether a farm clears our bar right now. A tool can have clean facts on every criterion and still be new to us. Read the score to see where a farm is weak. Read the label to decide.
How do you read a project page in a minute?
- Label and score at the top. The decision and the summary of the facts.
- The lowest criterion. That is the catch. Low Access usually means invites, KYC or a short region list. Low Cost means the fees eat into the rewards.
- Campaigns and their end dates. What you can earn right now and when the window closes. Some campaigns only count activity after you join.
- Risks. What the project’s own docs say can go wrong: custody, liquidations, rule changes.
- Sources. Every fact on the page links to the official page it came from. If a fact matters to you, open the source before you act on it.
What makes us look at a farm again?
Farms go soft before they close. These are reasons to recheck any farm, ours included:
- A season is extended with no snapshot date.
- The rules change in the middle of a season.
- The weekly points pool shrinks while more people farm it.
- Points end and no token date follows.
- KYC or region limits arrive late, after people have farmed.
- Volume grows far faster than open interest or users.
None of these alone makes a farm Rotten. Two or three together usually mean the cost of farming is going up while the payout gets less certain.
Do referral links change the labels?
No. Some exits on the site are referral links: you get the benefit shown on that page and we may earn a share. The disclosure sits next to every such link. Labels never depend on referrals or payments, and a project cannot pay for a label.
What a label is not
A label is not a price call and not a promise of an airdrop. Fees, campaigns and regions change, so every project page shows when its facts were checked. If the date is old, check the source before you trade.
Frequently asked
What should I do with a Ripening farm? Watch it. Read its page, note the campaign dates, and wait for a label change or farm it small at your own risk.
Why is a Rotten farm still listed? So you can see why we skip it. The project page says what went wrong.
Can a project pay to be rated Ripe? No. Labels never depend on referrals or payments.
Where do I see every farm by label? On the tier list. The full catalog with filters is on Farms.