Crypto Slang You Need to Know"met a whale yesterday, he told me to HODL, never fall for FOMO and just keep my diamond hands."
Do you understand this sentence?
Learning about crypto requires a certain level of adaptation of one’s lingo. Many commonplace words like whale and moon, have different meanings in the crypto context. It’s important to know the meaning behind these terms, especially if you want to further engage with people within the community.
FOMO
FOMO is an acronym that stands for Fear Of Missing Out. The term itself did not originate from the crypto space but is widely used in the community. One can feel FOMO when there’s a crypto that rallies and they didn’t manage to buy in before the surge, as a result they buy when the price is already high.
A typical FOMO move
HODL
Originated from early bitcoin forums, when someone spelt HOLD as HODL. HODL refers to “Hold On for Dear Life”. This is the act of holding your position on the crypto regardless of the surrounding market environment.
You might see crypto enthusiasts encouraging each other to HODL especially during times of market volatility, to avoid selling out of panic and fear.
Shill
To shill is to promote a crypto for the purpose of driving it to higher prices. While the word precedes the cryptocurrency context, it has become a commonplace in the crypto world and is frequently used even in news articles.
A great example of shilling is every single time the Dogefather Elon Musk tweets about DOGE
After the billionaire entrepreneur made these rounds of tweets, Dogecoin’s value surged by more than 40%, effectively shilling DOGE.
Moon
A token is considered to be “mooning” when its price experiences a drastic spike. When used in a phrase like “to the moon” it means that the coin is expected to skyrocket, as if to head to the moon.
Whale
Whale refers to someone who owns a large amount of cryptocurrency. Alluding to the size and power of a whale, a crypto whale owns hundreds of thousands in crypto value and has the power to influence the price such that selling might result in a price dip.
Another variation of this slang is the word “shrimp” which refers to a crypto holder that owns a small amount. In BTC terms, a shrimp would own less than 1 BTC — not such a small amount after all seeing as how BTC is valued at $54K.
Pump and Dump
Pump and dump refers to a coordinated price manipulation strategy. What usually happens is that a group of people collectively buy a chosen coin to boost its price (pump) and quickly sell the coin to collect their profits. The ensuing sell off will typically result in a price crash (dump) and the cycle occurs in a very short period of time.
Be wary of Pump and Dump schemes and groups!!!
Diamond Hands 💎
Diamond Hands refer to the strength of a person to hold on to a cryptocurrency, regardless of the risks and usually has a larger end goal (of profit) in mind. A person requires diamond hands in order to HODL.
The opposite of this is a person with paper hands, or people who sell their crypto the moment they incur a few losses or at the mere sight of trouble.
FUD
FUD is an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. FUD is used as a tactic to drive weaker investors into selling their coins, ultimately to lower price. This allows other investors, who are less uncertain, to enter the market again. Someone who spreads FUD is known as a FUDster.
When Lambo?
Lambo or Lamborghini is a status symbol of luxury. The question is not meant to be taken literally. “When Lambo?” is a short form of “When can we get rich from this crypto holding and live a luxurious life?”. The question always comes up whenever a new coin or token pops up in the market.
How many words in this list do you already know?
Disclaimer: This is just for fun, none of this constitutes as financial advise.
