As a crypto enthusiast, it is necessary for you to know most of the commonly used terms in crypto and their meaning.
Some of these terms are:
Airdrop
A way to promote cryptocurrencies by sending some free tokens to crypto enthusiasts.
ATH
This means All Time High; The Highest point in price that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
ATL
This means All Time Low; The lowest point in price that a cryptocurrency has been in history.
Altcoin
This refer to coins that are alternative to bitcoin.
AMA
This means Ask Me Anything; it refers to actions where individuals of certain profession or company conduct a session for users to ask them questions.
Bagholder
A person who is holding a large quantity of cryptocurrency which is declining in value or becoming worthless.
Bearish
A term used to indicate negative sentiment towards the market or an asset, where investors believe that there will be downward price movement.
Bear Market
Contrary to bull market, it indicates the direction of the market going for downward trend.
Bitcoin Evangelist
Individuals who are passionate about bitcoin, and are dedicated in spreading knowledge about bitcoin.
BUIDL
An advice for investors to contribute new projects on blockchain rather than holding cryptocurrencies and waiting for the price to increase.
Bullish
A term used to indicate positive sentiment towards the market or an asset, where investors believe that there will be upward price movement.
Bull Market
A bull market indicates the direction of the market going in an upward trend.
Burned Tokens
These are tokens which have been sent to addresses whose private key are not known, effectively becoming unusuable.
Centralized
An organization structure wherein a small handful of actors have control over the entire network.
Cloud Mining
It refers to mining on blockchains through rented processing power rented from companies that host the physical equipment.
Cold Storage
It refers to the offline storage of cryptocurrencies which is arguably safer as they also require physical access.
Cold Wallet
These are wallets that are offline and require physical access to certain devices.
DApps
This means Decentralized Applications; These refers to applications that run on decentralized peer-to-peer networks.
DAO
This means Decentralized Autonomous Organization; These are open source and decentralized systems that do not require centralized operators or controllers.
DeFi
This means Decentralized Finance; it refers to the movement of holding decentralized financial applications that have no central authority and is censorship free.
Degen
Crypto trading without due diligence and research which implies to be basically gambling.
DYOR
This means Do Your Own Research; It is an advice for investors to do their own research on the coins they wanted to invest in.
Dump
A common term used to describe downward market movement, or to describe the action of selling an individuals holdings.
FOMO
This means Fear Of Missing Out; it refers to the feeling of apprehension for missing out on a potentially profitable investment opportunity and regretting it later. Generally an expression describing investors fear of missing out the good timing of buying cryptocurrencies that could eventually be profitable.
FUD
This means Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt; it is a strategy to dissuade people from buying a particular cryptocurrency by spreading false information.
Halving
Event that serves to reduce in half the reward of the proof of work miners that operate in the blockchain network.
Hard Cap
The maximum amount that an ICO will be raising.
HODL
It means Hold On for Dear Life; A crypto slang encouraging investors to hold on to their assets rather than selling it.
ICO
This means Initial Coin Offering; it is the equivalent of Initial Public Offering (IPO), where a cryptocurrency venture raises funds through crowd sales.
IDO
This means Initial DEX Offering; it is a type of decentralized and permissionless crowdfunding platform, which is opening up a new way of fundraising in the crypto space.
IYKYK
It is an abbreviation for If You Know You Know; The phrase implies that the user has dropped some sort of insider knowledge about a specific experience.
KYC
It stands for Know Your Customer; a process for business entities that are required to verify its clients and assessing them.
Ledger
A record of financial transactions that cannot be changed, only appended with new transactions.
Leverage
It is an investment strategy to gain potential return of the investment by borrowing the money.
Limit Order
These are orders placed by traders to buy or sell a cryptocurrency when a certain price is reached.
Liquidity
How easily a cryptocurrency can be bought and sold without impacting the overall market price.
Margin Call
This takes place when investors margin account falls below the required amount to stay afloat.
Margin Trading
It is a way of investing by borrowing money from a broker or in crypto, an exchange or platform to trade.
Market Maker
Participant of the market who creates buy and sell orders.
Market Order
A market order is s buy or sell order of stocks or cryptocurrency at the best price available in the current market as soon as possible.
Market Taker
Participants that are responsible for processing blockchain transactions and receive a reward when a block is mined.
Metaverse
Ther metaverse is a virtual space where users are able to interact with each other in a computer generated environment.
Miners
Contributors to a blockchain taking part in the process of mining.
Mining
It is the process of the miners verify and adding transaction records in a block.
Mining Reward
The reward resulting from contributing computing resources to process transactions.
Mnemonic Phrase
A mnemonic phrase (also known as mnemonic seed, or seed phrase) is a list of words used in sequence to access or restore your cryptocurrency assets.
Moon
‘Moon’ or ‘To the Moon’ is a crypto slang that describes an exclamation when the cryptocurrencies prices are rising and when it hit the peak, the coin is said to be ‘Mooning’.
NFT
This means Non-Fungible Tokens; it is a non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger, that can be sold and traded.
OTC
This means Over The Counter; it refers to the process that cryptocurrencies are being traded outside exchange and it is done directly between two parties.
Portfolio
A portfolio consists all of your current crypto holdings in one place.
Presale
A typically exclusive token sale events preceding a public ICO.
Private Keys
The alphanumeric string which allows transactions from the cryptocurrency address.
REKT
A shorthand slang for ‘Wrecked’, typically describes bad trades that results in losses.
ROI
It is a short form for return on Investment, the ratio between the net profit and cost of investing.
Rug Pull
It is the sudden removal of liquidity which typically leads to asset prices crashing from the lack of liquidity to absorb buy/sells.
SEC
US Securities and Exchange Commission, an independent agency of the US Federal Government which oversees federal securities lows, proposing securities rules, and regulating the securities industry.
Shilling
One who poses as a enthusiastic customer to swindle others as a form of covert advertising.
Shitcoin
A coin with no obvious potential value or usage.
Smart Contracts
Self executing contracts on the blockchain without needing human executors or notary.
Soft Cap
Targeted fund raising limit of an ICO.
Stable Coin
Cryptocurrency with a price peg to fiat currencies or commodity.
Staking
The state of locking in significant amount of token to participate as a validator of a proof of stake network.
Token
Blockchain based unit of value issued by an organization, which grants token holders a right to participate in a network.
Token Burn
An event in which tokens are permanently removed from circulation.
Token Supply
All the tokens and coins that will exist in a cryptocurrency network.
Trading Volume
The amount of the cryptocurrency that has been traded in the last 24 hours.
Transaction Fee
A payment to the network for performing a transaction to be recorded on the blockchain.
Utility Token
Cryptocurrency tokens with specific utilities on a network besides used as medium of exchange and investment vehicle.
Wallet
Software client that handles storage of cryptocurrencies and allows users to send cryptocurrencies.
Wallet Address
The address in which cryptocurrency can be stored, sent to and receive.
Whale
Someone who holds an enormous amount of cryptocurrency and has the ability to wave the market.
Whitelist
List of approved participants that will be given access to a token sale.
Whitepaper
An introductory paper or a document released by developers of a crypto project that explains the purpose of the project they are working on.
