43 crypto acronyms and slang terms you need to know
For weeks, we’ve been posting articles on different topics under blockchain and cryptocurrency. I’m sure by now, you understand blockchain to an extent. Today, we’ll be looking at something similar but important, which is the abbreviations used in crypto. You might have come across some while some may look so new. If you have been following our posts you would understand some of them without explanations. Anyway, let’s look at some of them and open our understanding to what they mean.
Here are some of the acronyms and slang terms that are used in crypto;
DYOR
The full meaning of DYOR is Do Your Own Research. Though this phrase seems like a piece of advice, it isn’t. It is a phrase used by crypto enthusiasts which aim at reducing the risk attached with misinformation in cryptocurrency. A lot of people invest in crypto with no solid information about what they are investing in. DYOR helps in encouraging each investor to make research and understand the cryptocurrencies before investing in them
FOMO
FOMO, a commonly used term in the world and online space means Fear Of Missing Out. FOMO simply means the fear of missing out on an opportunity or making a wrong decision. Just like it applies in the world, so does it in crypto. FOMO is usually used as a driving force that pulls people into cryptocurrency. And for the cause of FOMO, there was a rapid rise and fall of Bitcoin’s price in 2017
JOMO
JOMO means Joy Of Missing Out. This refers to a trader who is happy for not taking a particular position or rushing at a particular opportunity after a drop in the price of such an opportunity or position.
FOSO
Fear Of Starting Out
This is a crypto term used in describing a person who is scared of joining the crypto market due to the fear of losing his funds
Sats
Sats is a unit that has been named after the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto as a homage. Sats is the smallest amount of bitcoin that can ever be sent and its history began as far back as November 2008 when Satoshi Nakamato decided the value of bitcoin in Satoshi to be 100 million. In 2010, the term
Satoshi was given one hundredth million units of bitcoin.
GWEI
GWEI is the abbreviation for giga wei. This is the smallest unit of either which is the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain. Wei was named after the godfather of the crypto movement, Wei Dai. I, 000,000,000wei will be equal to 0.000000001ETH
DEX
In one of our recent posts, we talked about Dex. However, let’s consider it as a crypto acronym today. Dex is one of the many crypto acronyms that stands for Decentralized Exchange. This is a secured type of cryptocurrency exchange that eliminates intermediaries during transactions through the use of peer-to-peer cryptocurrency transaction
FUD
This simply means Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. It is a mindset whereby there is general pessimism about a particular market. FUD is mostly used to address situations or information that their negative impacts are being buttered up
DEFI
Just like DEX, DeFi is one of the topics we’ve explained in one of our posts. Nevertheless, it’s a crypto acronym so, we’ll briefly explain it as a crypto acronym. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) can be said to be the most important of all crypto acronyms. For its sake, all other crypto acronyms were born. DeFi is a financial system where users are free from banks and their intermediaries, that is, financial services can be used without a bank account.
BTD or BTFD
BTD means Buy The Dip while BTFD means Buy The F***ing Dip. This term is a trading strategy in crypto. It focuses on profiting from the dip in the market. When a crypto trader wants to use the BTD strategy, he waits till there’s a decrease in the price of a currency(the dip). Then he sells it as soon as there is an increase in the value of the same currency and makes a huge profit.
CA
CA which is an acronym for Certificate Authority is an entity that issues a digital certificate called Secure Socket Layer(SSL). These certificates are used to link an entity with a public key. CA also helps to establish trust between entities over the Internet that communicates with each other.
HODL
Initially, HODL isn’t an acronym but a slang term in crypto. It was just one of the wonders of typos that turned into slang. A few years back, in the early days of crypto trading, a mistake happened when someone wanted to tell the members of a board meeting to hold a particular coin. Unfortunately, the typo misspelt it as “hodl”. Not long after, the mistake became slang. Recently, matching words have been found to make it an acronym. HODL now means Hold On for Dear Life. This implies that when the price of cryptocurrencies are fluctuating, traders should “Hold On for Dear Life” instead of selling it at a loss
Altcoin
This term means that “all cryptocurrencies are not Bitcoin”. This is simply used to make people understand that there are several various types of cryptocurrency. Even though bitcoin is the most popular, it is not the only existing cryptocurrency
ICO
Initial Coin Offering or ICO is a crypto acronym which is how blockchain projects raise their fund and launch their virtual currency network
IEO
Whenever you hear of IEO, it means Initial Exchange Offering. This is a strategy that involves the use of cryptocurrency exchange in raising funds for new projects. Mostly, startup companies make use of IEO to raise capital by selling utility tokens.
IDO
Initial DEX Offering(IDO) is a crypto token offering that is based on Decentralized Exchange(DEX). In IDO, LPs help by providing liquidity post-sale. IDO allows users to lock funds in exchange for new tokens which are added with some raised funds to an LP before it is later returned to the project it was meant for.
ROI
ROI or Return of Investment is a crypto acronym used in indicating the ratio between a trader’s initial investment and its return. That is the gain made on an ICO
Pre-sale
Just as the name implies, presale is an act that is practiced by some projects in crypto ahead of an ICO whereby tokens are sold out to interested users at a cheaper rate.
Seed Round
Seed round is another way of raising funds to start a business. It is a financing round that raises the initial capital used in starting a business. These initial capital are called seed capital. Seed capitals often come from friends, families, company founders’ personal assets, angel investors and VC
ROI
ROI or Return of Investment is a crypto acronym used in indicating the ratio between a trader’s initial investment and its return. That is, the gain made on an ICO
Moon or To The Moon
This acronym explains that there is high likeability for the price of a cryptocurrency to greatly increase
REKT
Instead of “ wrecked”, “rekt” is used in crypto to depict someone’s huge loss
Lambo or When Lambo?
Lambo is a shorthand for Lamborghini. Yes! The fast and expensive Italian sports car. It shows the level at which people are optimistic to get rich with crypto money. If asked “When Lambo?” it means that “when will crypto’s price go up to the extent that I’ll be able to afford a Lamborghini?” The truth is that the slang term is teaching crypto traders patience. Crypto is not a “get rich quick” skill
WAGMI
We Are All Gonna Make It (WAGMI) is an acronym used in crypto to achieve optimistic mindsets and thoughts of traders
ATH
ATH which stands for All-Time-High is a crypto acronym that is used to tell when the highest price of a particular coin is paid. Through this, there is an indication that someone’s portfolio has reached the highest value ever
ATL
ATL or All-Time-Low is the exact opposite of ATH. It signifies when a particular coin or someone’s portfolio is at its lowest ever
WHALE
A whale is a term used to describe a person with a large position in a particular coin.
Cryptosis
Cryptosis is a slang term in crypto which sounds like a disease. It refers to a person who is obsessed with things that have to do with crypto. This type of person will always find himself reading about crypto and discussing it
LP
LP means Liquidity Provider. This is a crypto user that puts some of his funds or assets at stake in the crypto market intending to exchange it for market making. An LP is always aware of the risk of loss before releasing his funds.
DAO
A decentralized Autonomous Organization(DAO) is an organization represented by rules which are encoded as a computer program and it is also called Decentralized Autonomous Corporation(DAC). DAO/DAC is controlled by members of an organization that has no interference from the central government, that is, it is a member-owned community with a decentralized leadership
Yield Farming
Yield farming is an investment strategy in Decentralized Finance(DeFi) where liquidity providers generate passive income by providing liquidity. Lps stake their coins and they get transaction fee as a form of reward
Staking
Staking is a process where users risk their crypto assets to support a Blockchain network. This way users’ transactions are being verified and they warn based on the assets they have risked. Staking is available with cryptocurrencies that use proof-of-stake. Proof-of-stake is an energy-efficient device that solves a mathematical problem with the use of computing power
TVL
Total Value Locked or TVL is the all-around value of crypto assets that have been put into DeFi projects. A project’s TVL doesn’t add up or reduce when a new transaction is made or when new assets are withdrawn, it changes whenever there is a rise or fall in the dollar value of the assets in the cryptocurrency market
APY
APY is an abbreviation for Annual Percentage Yield. It acts as a cryptocurrency savings account that is used to track interests on particular savings over a year. APY is a method used in calculating the interest made on a money market as our at the end of a year(annually)
DApps
Dapps is an abbreviation for Decentralized Applications. These are applications that are built on the blockchain or peer-to-peer networks and are free from intermediaries. In crypto, Apps run blockchain in a decentralized and public environment which gives freedom for users and eliminates interference.
OG
This is an acronym for Original Gangster. This term originates from hip hop and rap but today, it is also used in the crypto space. OG is usually used in Twitter and Telegram group chats. It is used in referring to those that have been in the crypto space since its advent, that is, 2013/2014.
Bag Holder
A bagholder is a crypto holder who is in unfortunate condition because the coin’s price has collapsed. In this situation, he remains stuck with the coin as he can’t sell it without making a great loss out of it. These people are hereby termed bagholder’s who have been “left holding the bag”
Bull Trap
This is a term used in sending false signals about the price of a coin going up again. Nevertheless, the price goes down again as soon as it rises up
CT
CT is a shorthand for Crypto Twitter. It refers to a global group of crypto enthusiasts on Twitter. They discuss issues that are related to blockchain
AMA
AMA is an abbreviation for Ask Me Anything. In crypto, it refers to an opportunity where questions are set and asked in a community from a team or person. These questions are usually answered via posts, Youtube lives streams or Reddit. It helps people to get more enlightened about questions they find confusing
SAFU
SAFU means Secure Assets For Users. SAFU is an emergency insurance fund that was established in July 2018 by Binance. It was established to safeguard users’ funds. Changpeng Zhou (CZ), the CEO of finance once said “funds are safe”. Ever since then, he has continually used it to assure users about the safety of their funds. The phrase “funds are safe SAFU” became a crypto slang after a content creator named Bizonacci uploaded a video titled “funds are safe SAFU” on Youtube. The post went viral and since then, the phrase has been used as slang in crypto
Degen
In crypto, Degen is an acronym for Degenerate. This signifies crypto traders that jump into trading crypto without proper research and understanding. Degen is often triggered by FOMO and chats on crypto groups. To reduce the rate of Degen, DYOR is advised.
NFT
NFT is the acronym for Nonfungible Token. NFT is a digital asset that can’t be changed. Unlike bitcoin and a lot of other cryptocurrencies that are fungible, that is, interchangeable or replaceable, NFTs cannot be interchanged. A nonfungible Token is a digital asset that grants the ownership of a virtual good
NFT is more than just this little content. To know and understand what NFT is, stay glued and never miss the next post.
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