Cryptocabulary: Common Crypto Slangs and What They Mean

Have you ever felt like an alien in a conversation about cryptocurrency investing? Traders, YouTubers, and investors usually use slangs and terms to communicate. If you’re new, you might feel lost.

After reading this, you won’t ever feel that way again because we’re about to explain as many of those phrases as possible. So let’s take a look at a few of them.

HODL

The spelling looks like someone took the “L” to a new position when trying to spell “Hold.” As a trader, you buy a certain coin, and you “keep” for a long time. So the term “HODL” means to hold on to the coin you’ve purchased and with the plan to not sell in the short term. In that respect, you are a “hodler.”

FUD

Investing generally is a risky thing and investing in cryptocurrency is not different. So FUD stands for “Fear, uncertainty, and doubt.” You must have heard someone say “don’t spread FUD”,

FOMO

FOMO means Fear of Missing Out. It refers to when a person buys coins or invests in cryptocurrency because they suddenly notice a high percentage of growth in a specific coin. FOMO is choosing to invest based on emotions, not valuation.

ATH

This means “All-Time High. It is used when a coin reaches a remarkably high price.

Pump and Dump

This describes a type of cycle or continuous situation where the price of a coin rises and falls repeatedly. Usually, the cycle is because of a drop in volume. “Pump” explains what investors do when they purchase a large volume of a coin (they “pump”). Then, they use FOMO to attract new investors or beginners and sell to them at a higher price (they “dump”).

Whale

A whale is a big player in the market who has a lot of capital to invest. Because they have large amounts of capital to invest, these people can influence the market’s direction.

Shill

A person “shills” a coin when they publicly announce their support for it. “Shilling” is usually an attempt to make people gain interest in a token/coin.

Bag Holder

A bag holder is a person who has a lot of coins in their wallet. This individual bought at a high price and failed to sell, and the coin lost its value.

WAGMI

WAGMI is the short for We’re All Going to Make It. When a person uses it in a group, it means the group will be successful.

NGMI

NGMI is short for Not Going to Make it. It is the direct opposite of WAGMI. A person uses it when they mean investment will not be successful because of bad decisions.

SAFU

Binance, a cryptocurrency network, developed a type of insurance fund in July 2018 known as SAFU. SAFU stands for Secure Assets Funds for Users. After establishment, the organization set a percentage of trading fees in an attempt to grow it to a good amount and use it to protect its users. The CEO went on to tweet that “Funds are safe,” telling users their funds are always intact with Binance. Later, content creators took it up and used the terms “funds are safe” and “SAFU” in the same sentence. So in reality, when a person or big organisation says, “Funds are SAFU,” it means the funds are safe.

ICO

ICO stands for “Initial Coin Offering,” It is similar to what traditional investors call an IPO (Initial public offering).

When a person buys a coin, they expect to sell for a profit when the coin first exchanges. Usually, it is because of the initial hype or fame that caused an increase in demand. However, the ICO will create a kind of entry barrier because buyers need to create a private wallet to get the coin after ICO purchase.

BTFD

This stands for Buy The Fucking Dip. It is normally used when FUD has set in, and hodler sells due to people’s fear. People use BTFD to encourage buying at such times, saying it is the right time.

Paper Hands

“Paper hands” refers to people who are quick to sell when the market is down, people who have little patience.

Moon

The term can be used in two different ways. It could describe a trend where a particular coin rises upward and strongly. On other occasions, traders use “to the moon” to describe the potential of a currency to increase tremendously on the market.

DYOR

This stands for Do Your Own Research. Some YouTubers, Crypto advisers, or podcasters use it as a disclaimer when sharing information, and they don’t want people to trust them 100 percent.

Sats

This is short-term for Satoshi. The word “Satoshi” itself is derived from the first name of the creator of the first-ever Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakomoto. A sats or satoshi is the smallest fraction of Bitcoin a person can send. The value stands at 0.00000001 Bitcoin or 100 000 000 satoshis.

When Lambo

This phrase is common in the early days of cryptocurrency. Enthusiasts use the term to refer to the future of cryptocurrency as a beautiful and aspirational status. “Lambo ‘’ in the slang refers to Lamborghini. So when traders say “when Lambo,” they are talking about a future of BTC where they would have some more wealth from investing. It makes more sense if you know the number of people who bought a Lamborghini to celebrate investing in Bitcoin.

REKT

The term means to be WRECKED. For cryptocurrency investors and enthusiasts, REKT describes a state of catastrophic loss after investing in cryptocurrency.

RUG PULL

Rug pull is a scandalous situation where a developer accepts a contract to develop a coin but decides to leave the project unfinished and disappear with the investor’s money.

BEARS

When there is a “bear market,” the supply of a coin is constant, but the demand has dropped, leaving an excess in the market. The situation would lead to the price falling and the coin dropping in value. As a result, most investors would lose their confidence. Some investors are pessimistic about such problems; they think the price will keep falling. The group of traders with this mindset are referred to as BEARS.

BULLS

It is almost the direct opposite of the bear market. In the “bull market,” the price rises, and confidence is high. So a BULL is an extended time when many investors purchase cryptocurrency because the demand is high, but supply is constant.

Conclusion

Understanding crypto slangs is important if you ever consider investing in cryptocurrency. The communities, tutors, traders, investors, and influencers in this market will use those phrases often, and you don’t want to miss or misunderstand what they mean. So, you need to learn them as soon as you can. Some of them have been covered in this post and will be enough, for a start.