20 Crypto Terms Any Newbie Should Get Acquainted With

Art Deco
3 min readMay 16, 2021

--

If you are a newbie in the crypto space, there are quite a few acronyms and phrases that you need to know.

Here are the few slangs you have to know.

After all, no one wants the FOMO, right? 🤷🏽

1. Fiat — Government-issued money or currencies i.e Pounds Sterling, Dollar

2. Blockchain — The technology that powers cryptocurrency keeping the system secure and decentralized.

3. DEFI — (Decentralized Finance) is an ecosystem that operates independently, free of third parties or exchanges.

*Defi involves the use of decentralized exchanges and wallets to trade tokens.

4. CEFI — (Centralized Finance) The standard for trading Crypto (The one we know) before DEFI.

5. White paper — A document that outlines what a crypto project is created to do and how they tend to achieve it.

6. Tokenomics — This is a combination of Token & Economics. It helps understand the supply and demand characteristics of a cryptocurrency

7. ICO- Stands for ‘Initial Coin Offering’, which is where a new cryptocurrency gives away some coins at a discounted rate usually to finance the project.

8. IDO — Stands for ‘Initial DEX Offering’ refers to the launching of a cryptocurrency on a decentralized exchange (DEX) usually at a price lower than the listing price in order to raise funds.

9. Shill — Someone purposely promoting something for their own benefit.

The word “shill” didn’t originate in the crypto world, but there are many reasons why this term became popular in this space. Who would shill, you ask? Most likely, someone who has invested in a particular coin that isn’t doing so hot, and is hoping other people would buy it and bump the price up. It’s all for personal gains. 🤷

10. Market cap — The total trading value of a cryptocurrency. Calculated by (Current Price x Circulating Supply= Mcap)

For example, a coin with 1 million coins in circulation selling at $1 would have a market cap of $1million.

11. Stablecoin — A cryptocurrency that is tied to the value of the US dollar to make it more stable and less volatile. E.g USDt, Busd

12. Whale — A crypto whale is wealthy individual or a company that can move large amounts of cryptocurrency in one go. This can have a big impact on the market.

13. Bagholder — This term is for someone left with a cryptocurrency after a pump and dump. E.g Everyone holding Shitcoins after they fall🥴

14. Gas — A fee for validating a transaction.

15. Pump & Dump — Pump happens when a great ton of attention leads to a coin’s price increase; dump happens when the coin’s price crashes after an associated spread of negative emotions.

Pump and dump is yet another tactic used by groups to manipulate the sentiments of the crypto market. Beware of what the whales do — if they pump and dump, you may see big waves in the crypto’s value!

16. Mooning — When a cryptocurrency is about to soar in both price and volume.

17. HODL — A drunken misspelling of the word ‘hold’ which is now a slang people use when they say they are going to wait and hold onto a cryptocurrency.

18. NFT — (Non Fungible Tokens) NFTs enable people to buy and sell collectibles like art, music and trading cards using smart contracts. NFTs can work like any other speculative asset, where you buy it and hope that the value of it goes up one day, so you can sell it for a profit.

19. DYOR — (Do Your Own Research) often aims to reduce the number of uninformed investors in cryptocurrency. It encourages them to research and understand a cryptocurrency before investing.

20. NFA — (Not a Financial Advise) The term is also often used as a disclaimer when cryptocurrency traders and enthusiasts make public posts or share their market analyses on social media platforms.

The market cannot be 100% predictable and even a “Correct” analysis can fail so it’s important that users apply discretion while investing.

Guess you are Feeling like a wiz of cryptocurrency slang now? 😀

What’s your favorite crypto slang? Let us know in the comments below!

Remember to stay safe from scammers, read our guide on how to stay safe

Follow us on our social media.

Website | Telegram | Twitter | Instagram | Medium | Docs

--

--

Art Deco

#NFT Minting Platform and Marketplace For Creators Built On Binance Smart Chain https://artdeco.community