When you first discover Bitcoin you may quickly find that you have no idea what people are talking about. So as to understand the markets and discussions going on it is important to understand the terms used so we’ve put together a list to help you.
Airdrop – when a new crypto is given to people for free because they already own a specific crypto or due to completing promotional tasks like retweeting
Altcoin/alts – any crypto other than Bitcoin
Arbitrage – the trading of the same crypto on two different exchanges to take advantage of the price difference
Bagholder – someone who owns a relatively large amount of a specific crypto
Bear/bearish – when the market price is trending downwards
Blockchain – the underlying technology that Bitcoin operates on
Block explorer – an online portal to track crypto transactions and creation of new blocks
BTFD – ‘buy the f***king dip’, to buy a crypto when the price has declined significantly
Bull/bullish – when the market price is trending upwards
Candles – the most common indicator on a chart that displays price movement
Dapp – ‘decentralised application’, an app that runs on a blockchain
DYOR – ‘do you own research’
FA – ‘fundamental analysis’ of a crypto or the entire market based on news, rumours and facts
FIAT – is a government issued currency such as £ / $ / €
FOMO – ‘fear of missing out’, when someone acts emotionally when trading
Fork – when an existing blockchain splits in two creating a new crypto alongside the existing one
FUD – ‘fear, uncertainty and doubt’, often FUD is cited as the cause for price drops and can come from people, the media or organisations
HODL – ‘hold’, a misspelling of ‘hold’ that is also referred to as ‘holding on for dear life’. To hold a crypto through high and low price movements
ICO – ‘initial coin offering’, the launch of a new crypto
KYC – ‘know your client’, for anti money laundering purposes many exchanges and investment opportunities will require you to prove your identity
Lambo – what someone will own when they make it rich in crypto
Long – a trading position taken out on a crypto that expects the price to rise
Low/High Cap – description of the size of a specific cryptos market capitalization (size)
MCAP – ‘market cap’, refers to the overall market size of a crypto or the entire market usually in $
MEW – ‘MyEtherWallet’, a well used site to interact with the Ethereum blockchain and manage wallets
Mining – an intensive computational process to solve the next block in a blockchain, success is rewarded with the specific crypto being mined
Mining rig – the computer hardware used for mining
Moon – where the price of a crypto is expected to go in that direction, massively upwards
Node – a computer on the network working to maintain the blockchain
OTC – ‘over the counter’, the trading of usually large quantities of crypto, not through an online exchange but between two parties with a middleman facilitating and no public knowledge of the transaction
Pump & dump – the often manipulated and unnatural dramatic pumping rise in the price of a crypto followed quickly by a dumping of price to lower levels
REKT – when you have lost money on a crypto trade or are in a losing position
ROI – ‘return on investment’
RSI – ‘relative strength index’, an indicator used in technical analysis
Shill – someone who promotes a crypto they own hoping others will buy it and increase the price
Shitcoin – an altcoin with no inherent value or purpose
Short – a trading position taken out on a crypto that expects the price to fall
Stable coin – a crypto usually linked to a FIAT currency that is supposed to not be volatile
TA – ‘technical analysis’ of a crypto or the entire market based on price analysis of a chart
Ticker – the 3 letter symbol that represents a crypto, BTC = Bitcoin, ETH = Ethereum
Token – a crypto token issued on a pre-existing crypto blockchain such as Ethereum
Whale – someone who owns a large amount of a specific crypto and is able to move the market price in their chosen direction through trading large amounts
It’s like another language but we promise once you have spent a short time here, it becomes second nature. With the constant evolution of the market there will be many more we need to add to this list, feel free to send us your suggestions.