Newcomers in the world of cryptocurrencies are likely to be a bit overwhelmed by crypto terminology. That’s why we’ve gathered a list of common words and abbreviations that you will find in articles and forums online.
Crypto terminology list:
Altcoins – Common name for all other coins (thousands!) besides Bitcoin.
Altseason – The phase in which altcoins thrive in the market with major price increase, usually triggered by money flowing from Bitcoin to altcoins.
Bearish – Market situation in which the price goes down.
Bitcoin – The original cryptocurrency, created by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008.
Blockchain – The technology on which cryptocurrencies are built, essentially a decentralized database without a central authority.
Bullish – Market situation in which the price goes up.
Crypto – A term commonly used in the cryptocurrency, as a shorter alternative to cryptocurrency.
Exchange – Place in which you can buy, sell and/or trade cryptocurrencies (ie Binance and Coinbase).
FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) – When markets are in a strong upward trend in price, Fear Of Missing Out usually kicks in, which essentially means that people have the idea that they need to get in because they don’t want to miss out. Ironically, this FOMO often comes at a time when prices peak and subsequently start a downtrend.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) – The spreading of fear, uncertainty and doubt, typically through mainstream media and social media. This bad news can lead a coin to drop in price.
HODL – Long-term investors are called HODL’ers (as they ‘hold’ their coins) hoping to gain major profits in years to come.
ICO (Initial Coin Offering) – New crypto startup projects aiming to raise crypto funds through crowdfunding to start building their blockchain / crypto project.
Lambo – Short for Lamborghini, this is the dream of every crypto investor. Initially it was a word invented for people who invested in Ethereum, expecting the coin to go to the moon, thus making it possible for those people to afford ‘lambos’.
Ledger Nano S – Offline hardware wallet on which you can store your cryptocurrencies, commonly accepted as the safest way to keep your coins out of the potential threat of hackers.
Lightning Network – An attempt to solve scaling issues with Bitcoin and Litecoin, in order to have faster and cheaper transactions.
Long – Going into a trade expecting the price to go up.
Mining – The process of solving computational problems on the blockchain, in which transactions on a blockchain are verified and, in turn, miners receive a crypto reward.
Moon – The ultimate goal of HODL-ing, in which your coin / investment makes huge increases in price, bringing it to the ‘moon’.
Pump and Dump – When prices suddenly go down (dump) or up (pump) many percentages in a short amount of time, usually fuelled by some kind of manipulation.
Satoshi – A Bitcoin can also be described in terms of Satoshi, ie 1 Bitcoin is 100 million Satoshi.
Satoshi Nakamoto – The founder of Bitcoin, however this person (or group of people) remains unknown or anonymous. Rumours say that Satoshi Nakamoto has 1 million Bitcoins.
Shitcoin – A worthless altcoin, also often seen as a scam project.
Short – Going into a trade expecting the price to go down (and making profits).
Stop Loss – Professional investors use a stop loss. If you go into a trade and your coin goes down by ‘x’ amount of percent, you will sell your position at a loss (preventing potential further losses).
Whale – Cryptocurrency prices can and are affected a lot by so-called ‘whales’, people who own a lot of cryptos, thus they can influence prices by selling or buying large amounts.