45 Crypto Lingo & Terms For Newbies

45 Crypto Lingo & Terms For Newbies

A Curated Crypto Cheatsheet

For all those interested in crypto trading, NFTs, Web 3 or related technologies, knowing and understanding the daily jargon and terms used in vocabulary is a must because of FOMO!

My friend James used to be a bagholder, but he FOMO’ed and bought trillions of Sats, so now he’s a big whale HODL-ing for that moon.

Wait, did I just use a lingo up there, yes I did! But we shall look at all these slangs and terms and you can call this your favourite slang crypto cheatsheet.

You don't have to master all of them but having a concept is way much better.

So in addition to this article I wrote about crypto terms, I will update it with more but you can as well consult it because it has other web 3 terms that I won't mention again today.

So let's set off 🚀🚀🚀.

1. Altcoin

Short for Alternative Coin; The term altcoin refers to cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin (and sometimes also other than Ether).

image.png Such coins distinguish themselves from Bitcoin by extending their capabilities and plugging their shortcomings.

2. WAGMI

WGMI: stands for "We're Going to Make It" GMI: stands for "Going to Make It" YGMI: stands for "You're Going to Make It"

WAGMI stands for 'We are all gonna make it'. The acronym is widely used by the crypto community to build confidence, and encourage the community to not lose hope.

3. GM

The acronym “GM” typically stands for “Good Morning.” GM Wagmi is a project that takes inspiration from this greeting, having created a whole new token to spread positivity and make the crypto space a better place.

4. DeFi

DeFi (Decentralised Finance) recreates financial services like insurance, loans & savings on Blockchain networks outside the control of banks, governments & companies

Some top DeFi projects include Aave, Fantom, Colony etc.

5. Memecoin

A cryptocurrency based on a joke. Memecoins have no real-world utility and have value only because they are considered funny by many who buy them for this reason.

image.png The best known is Dogecoin.

6. Mempool

A collection of verified and submitted transactions that are waiting to be confirmed by all computers in the network.

7. Smart contracts

Smart contracts are self-executing digital contracts that allow some form of direct exchange between two people, without the need for a third party like a bank or real estate agent.

8. Oracle

A piece of code that takes data from multiple sources both inside and outside the blockchain, then verifies, analyses and feeds the results into a smart contract for further action. Smart contracts rely on data from oracles to perform actions.

9. Faucet

A reward system on a website or app that offers free cryptocurrency for signing up or completing certain tasks.

Some of these offers (not all) are scams and one must be careful before they sign up or share any data. There are also testnet faucets off the main networks that help us test dapps.

10. DEX

A crypto exchange(decentralised exchange) operating without a central authority (like Uniswap). The true wild west of trading. Approach with caution.

11. Airdrop

A distribution method in which tokens are sent to various wallet addresses. Airdrops are usually utilized as a marketing tactic to stimulate engagement, and performance, of the respective token and underlying organization/platform.

12. Arbitrage

This basically means buying cryptocurrency on one exchange and selling it for a higher price on another exchange.

13. Gas

The fee a miner earns for verifying and submitting transactions on the Ethereum network. Requiring Gas for every transaction prevents hackers from clogging Ethereum with invalid transactions.

14. Token

A type of cryptocurrency that represents an asset, or has a specific use with a blockchain ecosystem.

Some tokens are used for governance, allowing holders to vote on changes to the blockchain.

15. Shill

Every industry has shills. In the crypto world, this is someone who promotes an altcoin so they can personally benefit.

16. Rekt

Borrowed from the gaming world, rekt is a good description of a bag holder. It’s an “urban” spelling of wrecked.

17. Altseason

Altseason is a brief period where money flows out of Bitcoin & into altcoins, resulting in a significant & rapid price increase for the majority of cryptocurrencies.

18. NFTs

NFTs(Non-Fungible Tokens): are digital assets that are used to represent a wide range of unique, one-of-a-kind assets from collectibles to digital artwork to identity documents to land titles.

I have an article about Frequently Asked Questions about NFTs, read it here.

19. Stablecoin

A cryptocurrency that is pegged to a stable asset (e.g. U.S. Dollar).

20. Whale

A whale is a significantly large investor in Bitcoin or another asset. Whales own so much Bitcoin that their buy/sell activity has the power to move the market.

Here are the top known Bitcoin whales.

21. Moon

Where everyone wants their coin to go, up and into outer space. image.png

22. Shitcoin

A worthless and dead coin with no real value.

23. HODL (Hold On for Dear Life)

This started out as a misspelling of the word “hold”. People thought it meant “Hold On for Dear Life”, but it simply means holding on to your cryptocurrency when prices are highly volatile. People who do this are called HODLERs.

image.png This term was made famous by this article.

24. Lambo Wealth

When your little nest egg of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency reaches a value high enough to buy yourself a Lamborghini, you’ve reached Lambo wealth.

25. Pumping

A coordinated effort to boost a coin by buying a lot of it all at once.

26. Bearish

Borrowed from the forex trading world & means when the sentiment on a coin is negative.

27. Bullish

Also borrowed from the forex trading world & means when the sentiment on a coin is positive.

28. Exchange

Websites that allow you to purchase and sell cryptocurrencies.

29. Satoshi

Each Bitcoin is equal to 100 million Satoshis. Short-form "Sats", the smallest unit of Bitcoin.

30. FIAT

fiat money, in a broad sense, is all kinds of money that are made legal tender by a government decree or fiat.

image.png

31. FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt)

This term has been around forever and still means “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt”. In crypto, FUD refers to someone spreading negativity in order to cause the price of something to drop. A FUDster.

32. DYOR (Do Your Own Research)

In crypto, don’t just take someone’s word for something. This should be true of every decision in life, but especially those involving spending money.

33. Mining

The process of verifying transactions on the blockchain results in rewards (aka coins) for those who lend their computing power.

34. JOMO

The Joy Of Missing Out 😜. This happens when you dodged a bullet and are happy you didn’t buy a coin or participated in some crypto trading, ICO etc.

image.png

35. FOMO

The Fear Of Missing Out. This overwhelming sensation isn’t confined to the world of cryptocurrency. It means “Fear Of Missing Out” and it’s that anxious feeling you get when it looks like the price of something is going through the roof and you think you should jump on it.

36. 51% Attack

This refers to a computer or group of computers having the ability to verify more than 50% of all transactions in a network.

37. Casascius Coin

Actual metal bitcoins created by Bitcoin user Casascius (Mike Caldwell) are embedded with a piece of paper that contains the private key for a specific number of Bitcoin. A total of 27,673 Casascius coins were minted, worth a total of 59,383.9 BTC.

38. Coin Mixer

Software that makes bitcoin transactions anonymous and untraceable.

image.png

It achieves this by taking one transaction, mixing it up with others, and then sending it back to the owner at a different address and in different amounts.

39. Bubble

When the price of an industry or asset is way higher than its true value. Something waiting to pop at any moment.

40. Long

A decision to hold onto a coin for the long term.

41. ROI (Return on Investment)

The percentage of how much money has been made compared to the initial investment.

42. No Coiner

Someone who has no cryptocurrency in their investment portfolio & believes that cryptocurrency, in general, will fail.

43. Buy the dip

When you capitalise on temporarily low prices to get in at a cheap price.

image.png

44. DCA

Dollar-Cost Average: A reliable strategy that involves buying fixed amounts of crypto at regular intervals instead of trying to time your entry into the market.

45. ICO

Initial Coin Offering Is a common way for crypto projects to raise money for their business. This is similar to traditional IPOs.

More readings 🚀

So it’s better to familiarise yourself first with the lingo before you do a deep dive into your research and investing heavily in crypto.

📌 My First Article
📌 Bitcointalk
📌 Coinsource

Crypto itself can be missed out but it is just short for cryptocurrency in this context but it can be cryptography, cryptonian 😜, etc...

I may not have exhausted all since this is a nascent tech and ever-evolving but the ones above should get you started.

Bonus Term: 🔹 Flippening 🔹

When Ethereum overtakes Bitcoin as the biggest cryptocurrency (Flips). Many folks including me can't wait since I am a great fan of Ethereum and its ecosystem and I believe one day, we shall turn things around.

Conclusion

Once again, hope you learned something today from my little closet.

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