A Nocoiner’s Guide to Crypto Slang

Welcome to the crypto jungle, Nocoiner! Whether you’re looking to dip your toes into the blockchain waters or dive deep into digital currencies, this guide will demystify the cryptic crypto lingo. Welcome to your essential primer on crypto slang.

1. Market Movements

• Mooning
  • Origin: Refers to the phrase “going to the moon,” which describes a very high rise.
  • Meaning: When a cryptocurrency’s price is skyrocketing.
  • Example: “Ever since that billionaire tweeted about Doge, it’s been mooning like it’s got a rocket engine!”
• Rekt
  • Origin: Derived from the word “wrecked.”
  • Meaning: Suffering severe financial loss due to poor investment choices.
  • Example: “Bought high and sold low, huh? Sounds like you got totally rekt this time!”
• Pump and Dump
  • Origin: A term from the stock market describing unethical market manipulation.
  • Meaning: Artificially inflating the price of an asset before selling off the pumped shares for profit.
  • Example: “That coin’s rapid rise and fall? Classic pump and dump orchestrated by a notorious Telegram group.”
• Flash Crash
  • Origin: A term used in financial markets for sudden, severe price declines.
  • Meaning: A rapid and steep decrease in asset prices.
  • Example: “I blinked and missed the flash crash of ’21—crypto prices fell faster than a shooting star!”
• Bull Market
  • Origin: From the way a bull thrusts its horns upward.
  • Meaning: A market condition where prices are rising.
  • Example: “We’re in a bull market now, so everyone’s portfolio looks greener than a field in spring!”
• Bear Market
  • Origin: From the way a bear swipes downward.
  • Meaning: A market condition where prices are falling.
  • Example: “In this bear market, my crypto holdings are shrinking faster than ice cream in the sun.”
• Correction
  • Origin: Financial term indicating a reverse movement, usually downward, of at least 10% in a stock, bond, commodity, or index to adjust for overvaluation.
  • Meaning: A temporary price decline that resets overly high valuations.
  • Example: “After that wild ride up, a 10% correction felt like the market’s way of catching its breath.”
• Dead Cat Bounce
  • Origin: The notion that even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from a great height.
  • Meaning: A temporary price recovery after a substantial fall, followed by continued decline.
  • Example: “That slight uptick was just a dead cat bounce—it fell again faster than the cat could purr.”

2. Investment Strategies

• HODL
  • Origin: A drunken typo of “hold” that became viral.
  • Meaning: Keeping your cryptocurrency through the ups and downs instead of selling.
  • Example: “When in doubt, HODL out! It’s a crypto investor’s mantra during market madness.”
• BUIDL
  • Origin: A deliberate misspelling of “build,” inspired by HODL.
  • Meaning: Focus on creating blockchain and crypto technologies, regardless of market trends.
  • Example: “Forget the price charts, let’s BUIDL a solution that actually lasts!”
• FOMO
  • Origin: A popular acronym for “Fear of Missing Out.”
  • Meaning: Buying crypto because of the fear that prices will rocket without you.
  • Example: “He bought Bitcoin at an all-time high, classic case of crypto FOMO.”
• FUD
  • Origin: An acronym for “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.”
  • Meaning: Spreading negativity to influence market prices.
  • Example: “Ignore the FUD! That’s just noise from traders trying to shake you out of your coins.”
• Whale Watching
  • Origin: From watching large creatures in the ocean, metaphorically used for large asset holders.
  • Meaning: Monitoring the big movers in the market for cues on potential price movements.
  • Example: “Spent the night whale watching and saw a giant move 5,000 BTC to an exchange.”
• DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging)
  • Origin: An investment strategy from the traditional stock market.
  • Meaning: Investing a consistent dollar amount regularly, regardless of the asset price.
  • Example: “He’s the king of DCA, buying $50 worth of Ethereum every Friday come rain or shine.”

• Swing Trading
  • Origin: A common trading strategy across various asset classes, where the name reflects the goal to capitalize on the “swings” in market prices.
  • Meaning: Trying to profit from price swings in the market over days to weeks by capturing gains in a stock (or in this case, a cryptocurrency) within an overnight to several-week timeframe.
  • Example: “Swing trading in crypto is like riding a roller coaster—it’s all about knowing when to get on and off to have the best ride without getting queasy!”

3. Types of Participants

• OGs (Original Gangsters)
  • Origin: Coming from hip-hop culture, indicating someone deeply rooted in a community.
  • Meaning: Early adopters or pioneers in the cryptocurrency scene.
  • Example: “Those OGs bought Bitcoin when it was just a few dollars; now they’re living on private islands.”
• Whales
  • Origin: Borrowed from casino lingo, where “whales” are gamblers who place exceedingly large bets.
  • Meaning: Individuals or entities that hold large quantities of cryptocurrency, capable of influencing market movements.
  • Example: “When a whale sneezes, the crypto market catches a cold!”
• Miners
  • Origin: Similar to gold miners, digging through rock to find valuable ore.
  • Meaning: People who use powerful computers to process transactions and secure the blockchain network.
  • Example: “Miners are the backbone of the blockchain, grinding away to unearth new coins!”
• Shill
  • Origin: Derived from a con man’s tactic to lure people into a scam.
  • Meaning: Someone who promotes a cryptocurrency for their personal gain, often misleading others.
  • Example: “Watch out for that Twitter shill; he’s just trying to pump his bags before the dump.”
• Bagholder
  • Origin: Evoking the image of someone left holding a bag of worthless items.
  • Meaning: Someone holding a devalued cryptocurrency in hopes of a rebound.
  • Example: “After that crash, he’s turned into a bagholder, praying for a miracle.”
• No Coiner
  • Origin: Simply means someone who does not hold any digital coins.
  • Meaning: A person with no investments in cryptocurrencies, often skeptical of its value.
  • Example: “No coiners keep saying it’s all a bubble, yet they secretly regret not buying in.”
• Degens
  • Origin: Short for “degenerates,” typically used in gambling contexts.
  • Meaning: Traders known for high-risk investments chasing high returns.
  • Example: “Those degens are at it again, throwing money at the latest meme coin hoping to strike it rich overnight.”

4. Technical Terms

• Blockchain
  • Origin: A chain of blocks holding data, making it secure and verifiable.
  • Meaning: A decentralised digital ledger that records transactions across many computers.
  • Example: “Think of blockchain as a digital diary, except it’s nearly impossible to scribble out past entries.”
• Hash Rate
  • Origin: Related to the “hash,” a result of a cryptographic function.
  • Meaning: The total computing power used in processing and validating blockchain transactions.
  • Example: “With a hash rate higher than ever, the bitcoin network is more secure than Fort Knox!”
• Smart Contract
  • Origin: Concept coined by Nick Szabo before Bitcoin was created, describing contracts converted into code.
  • Meaning: Contracts that automatically execute, control, or document legally relevant events according to the terms of a contract or an agreement.
  • Example: “Smart contracts are like vending machines for legal agreements—insert crypto, out pops a contract!”
• Fork
  • Origin: Like a fork in the road, it signifies a divergence.
  • Meaning: A change in protocol that creates two separate versions of the blockchain.
  • Example: “When Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash forked, it was like a family feud in the blockchain world!”
• Gas Fees
  • Origin: Analogous to the fuel needed to make a car run.
  • Meaning: Fees required to conduct transactions or execute smart contracts on networks like Ethereum.
  • Example: “Paying gas fees feels like filling up a sports car—necessary but painful when prices spike!”
• Wallet
  • Origin: Just like your everyday wallet holding money.
  • Meaning: A digital or physical device that stores cryptocurrencies.
  • Example: “My digital wallet holds more money than my leather one ever did!”
• Private Key
  • Origin: A security concept for exclusive access.
  • Meaning: A secure code known only to the owner, used to access cryptocurrency holdings.
  • Example: “Lose your private key, and you might as well say goodbye to your digital gold!”

5. Emerging Concepts

• DeFi (Decentralized Finance)
  • Origin: An evolution of traditional banking without the banks.
  • Meaning: Financial services offered on a blockchain, eliminating the need for intermediaries.
  • Example: “DeFi is like banking without the banker; everything from loans to savings happens on autopilot and blockchain!”

• NFT (Non-Fungible Token)
  • Origin: Comes from the notion that these tokens are unique and cannot be exchanged on a one-to-one basis like regular money.
  • Meaning: Digital assets representing ownership of unique items or content, verifiable via blockchain technology.
  • Example: “He bought an NFT of a digital rock for a million bucks—talk about pricey pixels!”
• Yield Farming
  • Origin: Inspired by the agricultural process of cultivating crops, referring to the cultivation of returns in the crypto space.
  • Meaning: Participating in DeFi activities to earn returns on cryptocurrency holdings through interest, fees, or token rewards.
  • Example: “Yield farming can be as rewarding as finding a golden egg, but watch out for market volatility weeds!”
• Liquidity Mining
  • Origin: Refers to the process of providing liquidity to a DeFi protocol in exchange for rewards, akin to mining precious metals.
  • Meaning: Supplying capital to liquidity pools in DeFi platforms to earn tokens as rewards.
  • Example: “Liquidity mining is like striking oil in your backyard—sometimes you hit a gusher!”
• Staking
  • Origin: Similar to staking a claim on a piece of land, here investors stake their claim on rewards by locking up their coins.
  • Meaning: Holding cryptocurrency in a wallet to support the operations of a blockchain network in return for rewards.
  • Example: “Staking your coins is like planting a money tree, where the fruits are more coins!”
• Layer 2 Solutions
  • Origin: Developed as additional layers built on top of a blockchain to improve its scalability and efficiency.
  • Meaning: Technologies that process transactions off the main blockchain (layer 1) to speed up transactions and reduce costs.
  • Example: “Layer 2 solutions are the express lanes of the blockchain highway, speeding up traffic and cutting down on gas!”
• Tokenomics
  • Origin: A blend of “token” and “economics,” referring to the study of the economic principles of cryptocurrencies.
  • Meaning: The economic policies that govern the issuance, distribution, and use of a cryptocurrency.
  • Example: “Navigating tokenomics can be like playing Monopoly, but where every property is a different crypto with its own set of rules!”

OG, Wale, Rekt, Moon. There you have it, now you speak crypto.