Cryptocurrency Lingo/Slang
List of the Cryptocurrency Lingo/Slang which can help out others as well:1.
HODLHold
On for
Dear
Life. A crypto trader who buys a coin and does not see himself selling in the foreseeable future is called a hodler of the coin.
2.
FOMOShort form for ‘
Fear
Of
Missing
Out’. The feeling when you see a huge green dildo on a chart and you don’t own that coin, so you sell other shit to buy into it freaking out. As crypto trading is still very much driven by emotions rather than valuation, FOMO is a huge factor to consider when swing trading in crypto.
3.
FUDShort form for ‘
Fear,
Uncertainty and
Doubt’. Usually used in the form of “xxx spreading FUD again.”
Example: JPMorgan’s Dimon spread FUD by saying Bitcoin is a fraud that will eventually blow up.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.smallcapasia.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F09%2Fspread-fud.jpg&t=665&c=K2v-ABJPSs5qrg)
4.
ATHShort form for “
All-
Time
High”. Therefore it means the highest historical price of a specific coin.
5.
WhaleA huge player who has a substantial amount of capital. Whales are often the market movers for small alt-coins too due to their huge capital.
6.
Pump and DumpThe recurring cycle of an Altcoin getting a spike in price followed by a huge crash. Such movements are often attributed to low volume, hence the ‘pump’. Traders who pump, buying huge volumes, may wish to invoke FOMO from the uninformed investors and then dump, or sell, their coins at a higher price.
7.
ShillThe act of unsolicited endorsing of the coin in public. Traders who bought a coin has an interest in shilling the coin, in hopes of igniting the public’s interest in that particular coin.
8.
Bag HolderA term to refer to a trader who bought in at a high and missed his opportunity to sell, leaving him with worthless coins.
9.
Margin TradingA term for ‘trading with leverage’. In this instance of trading, you borrow one side of the trading pair at an agreed loan rate and sell it for the other side of the trading pair. Depending on the direction you believe the market to move, you may place a long or a short bet on the trading pair of concern.
10.
LongA position that a trader takes. To take a long position on something is to believe its value will rise in the future.
11.
ShortA position that a trader takes. To take a short position on a coin is to believe its value will fall in the future.
12.
Limit OrderAn order placed at a future price that will execute when the price target is hit.
13.
Borrowing RateWhen you open a leveraged position, you will be borrowing coins at a pre-determined rate. This rate will be added to reflect your position’s overall profit and loss.
14.
Lending RateSome exchanges have lending accounts. You may deposit your coins into these lending accounts to lend your coins for others to execute their leveraged trades. The lending rate fluctuates throughout the day based on the demand for shorting the coin.
15.
Fill or KillA limit order that will not execute unless an opposite order exceeds this limit order’s amount.
16.
BUY | SELL WallA wall as seen in the depth chart of exchanges is an amalgamation of limit orders of the same price target.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FKkoKj8y.png&t=665&c=J3aY2LwduH-hPg)
17.
Altcoin“Alternate coin” so it is everything other than Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin is the main index for cryptocurrency market. If BTC goes up, other coins go up. If BTC goes down, other coins go down.
18.
Circulating SupplyThe price of a coin has no meaning on its own. However, the price of a coin, when multiplied by the circulating supply, gives the coin’s market cap.
19.
Market Cap.A stock’s market cap refers to the market value of the company’s outstanding shares.
In the cryptocurrency market, the market cap is used to illustrate a coin’s dominance in the entire cryptocurrency market.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F2quLbk2.png&t=665&c=rBCILoouc_yEPQ)
20.
DDOSShort form for ‘
Distributed
Denial
of
Service’.
A well-timed DDoS attack at exchanges during volatile movements may be devastating as traders will not be able to execute any order manually and will be at the mercy of their pre-set, or the lack of, limit orders.
21.
ICOShort form for “
Initial
Coin
Offering”, which takes a page from the usual IPOs investors know.
Coins bought during ICOs are usually sold for a profit when the coin first hits exchanges. This is due to the initial hype which increases demand for the coin.
On the supply side, ICOs create entry barriers as the buyer has to set up his private wallet to receive the coins from the ICO purchase.
22.
ArbitrageThe act of buying and selling on different exchanges to earn the difference in the spread. Arbitrage opportunities occur due to differences in exchange reputation, community coin preferences and ease of bank funding.
Take note that fees, limits and prices could change anytime when you are transferring your coins between exchanges, especially during volatile times.
23.
BTFD“
Buy
The
Fucking
Dip” – When people are running around and selling because of fear, this is the time to buy.
24.
MoonExtreme bullish movement of a coin.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FqznQyg3.png&t=665&c=CO_w4p8y6vwvLw)
25.
Weak HandsThose who cannot be patient and sell at loss when the market is down.
26.
Token AirdropSimply put, an Airdrop means a coin/token is distributed to the community for free or for small tasks. This is done to ensure early distribution and to have as many people with “skin in the game” as possible.
An Airdrop aims to build a huge community easily as people will pay attention to the coin they hold. Furthermore, they tend to promote this coin for profits, and this may cost the Development Team little to achieve the goal of advertisement.
27.
Vote for Token ListingVote for the coins you'd most like to be listed for trading.
28.
ETAShort for
Estimated
Time of
Arrival,is an estimate time for something to be done.
![](https://ip.bitcointalk.org/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FEqZrPsV.png&t=665&c=idds3Yi_FJ58Vw)
29.
BountyRefers to a reward for users who promote the usage of cryptocurrencies(usually ICO campaign) through various social and business networks.
30.
Buying the DipsTo buy into the market when the market makes a downward move by a 'large' percentage (in crypto this can be anything from a 10% to %50+ move).
Read more
here31.
ShitcoinIs a pejorative term used to describe an altcoin that has become worthless. Shitcoin value may disappear because interest failed to materialize, because the altcoin itself was not created in good faith, or because the price was based on speculation.
32.
When Lambo?It's the act of asking when we are going to get rich?
33.
LamboAspirational symbol of success.
34.
WhitepaperIn cryptos is prepared by a party prior to launching a new currency. It details everything you need to know about the currency before making up your mind if you want to invest, purchase or use it.
35.
Distributed LedgerIs a database in which the data is shared to all participants in the network. All those participants record, share an synchronize the whole data. There is no need for a central authority in a distributed ledger. Blockchain is somehow a distributed ledger. But the process of organizing the database throught blocks, and linking these blocks using hashes, the method of consensus based on Proof of Work, is totally different from a common distributed ledger.
36.
ASICApplication Specific Integrated Circuit. These are the specialized silicon chips which process the SHA-256 algorithm to mine bitcoin and validate transactions.
37.
ASIC MinersThis is the hardware which houses the ASIC silicon chip. Connected to the internet.
38.
BitpayBitcoin processing company who allow merchants to accept bitcoin as a payment method.
39.
BlockchainA distributed and peer to peer digital ledger.
40.
Block RewardThis is the cryptocurrency reward that miners receive for successfully hashing a transaction block.
41.
BTCSymbol for bitcoin
42.
Charlie ShremFlamboyant and early bitcoin entrepreneur.
43.
Cold Storage Secure way of keeping cryptocurrencies off exchange.
44.
CryptocurrencyGeneric term for digital and cryptography based money.
45.
DifficultyThe level of resistance encountered when trying to hash a new block in the bitcoin blockchain.
46.
ExchangeWhere fiat money can be exchanged for bitcoin or altcoins.
47.
Faucet A reward system on a website that dispenses bitcoin in the form of a Satoshi (a hundred millionth of a bitcoin)
48.
FiatThe name for bank issued money, derived from the latin ‘let it be’.
49.
FlippeningThe name given for the event where a cryptocurrency who surpasses bitcoin in market capitalisation (yet to happen at time of writing).
50.
ForgingThe name giving to the process in proof of stake blockchains where there is no block reward. Forgers keep transaction fees instead.
51.
ForkWhat happens when a blockchain diverges into two potential paths forward.
52.
Genesis BlockThe first block to be mined in a blockchain.
53.
Halving The rate at which the block reward creates new bitcoin, halving every four years.
54.
Hard ForkNew blockchain software that is non-backwards compatible, causing a chain split.
55.
Hard WalletDevice which allows cold storage of coins, for increased security.
56.
HashThe name for an algorithm which takes an arbitrary sized data set and converts it to a fixed length and composition. Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 algorithm (converting to 256 bit data sets).
57.
Hash RateThe amount of hashes a miner can perform in a period of time.
58.
Lightening NetworkBuilds on networks like bitcoin and litecoin to allow off-chain settlements.
59.
MaximalistAnother crypto slang term for a bitcoin believer who is sceptical of altcoins.
60.
MiningThe process used to create coins or tokens and verify transactions on a proof of work blockchain
61.
OCD Obsessive
Cryptocurrency
Disorder. Suffered by those who can’t stop monitoring the value of their coins.
62.
Paper WalletA form of cold storage. These are public and private keys held on a piece of paper. A good designer can make them look like branded bank notes.
63.
Private KeyA secret number that allows bitcoins to be spent.
64.
Proof of Work This is difficult and costly to produce, but easy to verify by others. The mechanism used in the bitcoin blockchain.
65.
Proof of StakeA blockchain where there is no block reward or mining, as the creator is determined depending on stake (see forging). Less energy intensive than proof of work.
66.
Public KeyUsually represented as a bitcoin address, this is the information needed to receive bitcoin.
67.
Satoshi Nakamoto The pseudonymous creator of bitcoin.
68.
ScryptThe hashing algorithm used by Litecoin.
69.
Segregated WitnessIs a proposed scaling solution for bitcoin involving a soft fork.
70.
SHA-256The algorithm used for bitcoin hash creation (bitcoin’s proof of work).
71.
Silk RoadThe first modern dark net market, achieved notoriety. Subsequently shut down by the FBI who then auctioned confiscated bitcoins.
72.
Smart contractsApplications that run as programmed, without external influence.
73.
Soft ForkNew software that is backwards compatible, so the blockchain doesn’t split.
74.
Wallet The software that allows the spending, receiving and storing of cryptocurrency.
75.
Winklevoss TwinsEarly proponents of bitcoin, tried to establish a bitcoin ETF (exchange traded fund) which was rejected in March 2017.
76.
51% AttackA potential attack on the bitcoin network whereby an organization is somehow able to control the majority of the network mining power (hashrate). Bitcoin is secured by having all miners (computers processing the networks transactions) agree on a shared ledger called the blockchain. Read
more.
77.
BEARThis is a term borrowed from the Wall Street. This means a trader/investor who believes the prices of a particular cryptocurrency or market will fall and wants to profit from that fall.
78.
BULL This is a term borrowed from the Wall Street. This means a trader/investor who believes the prices of a particular cryptocurrency or market will rise and wants to profit from that rise.
79.
BEARWHALEThis means a trader with a fat account who is bearish on the price of a cryptocurrency.
80.
REKTThis is a misspelling of “wrecked”. This term refers to a trader or investor who is utterly ruined and destroyed with losses from the current downfall of a price.
81.
ADDYThis refers to a cryptocurrency public address (or key). For example: “Tell me your ADDY, please.”
82.
DILDO Long green or red candles
83.
DYOR Do Your Own Research
84.
FAFundamental Analysis
85.
JOMOJoy Of Missing Out
86.
TXid = transaction ID used for finding a transaction on a block explorer.
Explorer = Block explorer used to verify transactions.
87.
To get GoxedTo suffer from mt. gox’s technical glitches; to get screwed over by mt. gox; to lose all your money in a speculative investment.
88.
To take a Big Vern holidayTo disappear like Paul Vernon - the owner and CEO of the now defunct Cryptsy who "vanished" like the exchange funds. Also referred to as an "exit scam". This is where the exchange owner takes your funds and disappears.
89.
To receive a BFL upgradeTo receive something substandard much later than promised. (BFL = ButterFly Labs)
90.
To buy a YesminerTo pay for something and never receive it.
You can also read:
Terminology
Feel free to add more if I missed anything.SourceSourceSourceSourceRead more.Additional SlangAdditional Slang(xtraelv)Be Positive