List of the most widespread acronyms in the cryptocurrency community
HODL
Hodl (/ˈhɒdəl/ HOD-əl; often written HODL) is slang in for holding the cryptocurrency rather than selling it. It originated in a December 2013 post on the Bitcoin Forum message board by an apparently inebriated user who posted with a typo in the subject, “I AM HODLING.” Also is a backronim of – “Hold on for dear life.”
FUD
FUD is Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (often spread on social media or mass media). FUD can cause the price of a coin to drop, not based on fundamentals or charts, but based on bad news that spreads around social media. Many times the bad news isn’t substantiated or grounded in reality, and instead ends up being something silly like a popular talking head’s opinion that Bitcoin is a bubble. The fear, uncertainty, and doubt-inducing idea being spread around media can be referred to as FUD.
FOMO
FOMO is a more personal thing. Its the fear of missing out on something that others are enjoying (for example the fear of missing out on Bitcoin gains while others are picking out their Lambos). FOMO might drive you to buy into a coin, not take profits on a coin, or not to set stops on a coin that has already gone up considerably. It is the idea you get in your head that rational profit taking or waiting for a reentry point now will result in you missing out. This fear of missing out is what causes people to buy at the top or hold during a dip after making profits (only to lose some or all of their profits again). People can be said to get FOMO when they act on impulse due to the fear of missing out.
(A coin is pumping and you get the feeling it’s gonna pump more, so you buy high)
“As in most walks of life, in cryptocurrency trading specifically, neither FUD nor FOMO is your friend. Since this is a cryptocurrency site, let’s discuss how FUD and FOMO relate to crypto. “
BTFD
BTFD “Buy The Fucking Dip” – When people are running around and selling because of fear, this is the time to buy.
ATH
ATH. Short form for “All-Time High”. Therefore it means the highest historical price of a specific coin.
Moon
Moon. Extreme bullish movement of a coin.
Whale
Whale. A huge player who has a substantial amount of capital. Whales are said to have the ability to be market movers for small alt-coins too due to their huge capital.
PUMP
PUMP. Upward price movement (artificially pulled up)
DUMP
DUMP. To Sell off a coin
Dumping
Dumping. Downward price movement
Pump and Dump
Pump and Dump. The recurring cycle of an Altcoin getting a spike in price followed by a huge crash. Such movements are often attributed to low volume, hence the ‘pump’. Traders who pump, buying huge volumes, may wish to invoke FOMO from the uninformed investors and then dump, or sell, their coins at a higher price.
REKT
REKT. When you have a bad loss
Shill
Shill. The act of unsolicited endorsing of the coin in public. Traders who bought a coin has an interest in shilling the coin, in hopes of igniting the public’s interest in that particular coin.
Bag Holder
Bag Holder. A person who buys and hold coins in large quantity hoping to make good profits in the future. A term to refer to a trader who bought in at a high and missed his opportunity to sell, leaving him with worthless coins. Also in negative sense: “A person convinced to hold bags of worthless assets dumped by the last whales exiting an illiquid market.”
ASHDRAKED
ASHDRAKED. A situation where you lost all your money.
BEAR/BEARISH
BEAR/BEARISH. Negative price movement
BULL/BULLISH
BULL/BULLISH. Positive price movement
Dildo
Dildo Long green or red candles
DYOR
DYOR. Do Your Own Research
FA
FA. Fundamental Analysis
Candle
CANDLE. Huge green candle
OTC
OTC. Over The Counter
Margin Trading
Margin Trading. A term for ‘trading with leverage’. In this instance of trading, you borrow one side of the trading pair at an agreed loan rate and sell it for the other side of the trading pair. Depending on the direction you believe the market to move, you may place a long or a short bet on the trading pair of concern.
Long
Long. A position that a trader takes. To take a long position on something is to believe its value will rise in the future. Margin bull position
Short
Short. A position that a trader takes. To take a short position on a coin is to believe its value will fall in the future. Margin bear position.
Limit Order
Limit Order. An order placed at a future price that will execute when the price target is hit.
Borrowing Rate
Borrowing Rate. When you open a leveraged position, you will be borrowing coins at a pre-determined rate. This rate will be added to reflect your position’s overall profit and loss.
Lending Rate
Lending Rate. Some exchanges have lending accounts. You may deposit your coins into these lending accounts to lend your coins for others to execute their leveraged trades. The lending rate fluctuates throughout the day based on the demand for shorting the coin.
Fill or Kill
Fill or Kill. A limit order that will not execute unless an opposite order exceeds this limit order’s amount.
BUY | SELL Wall.
BUY | SELL Wall. A wall as seen in the depth chart of exchanges is an amalgamation of limit orders of the same price target.
MCAP
MCAP. Market Capitalization
DCA
DCA. Dollar-cost averaging is an investment technique of buying a fixed dollar amount of a particular investment on a regular schedule, regardless of the unit price. The investor purchases more units when prices are low and fewer units when prices are high.
It’s an investment strategy with the goal of reducing the impact of volatility on large purchases of financial assets such as equities and can bi valid for crypto as well.
Altcoin
Altcoin. “Alternate coin” so it is everything other than Bitcoin (BTC). Bitcoin is the main index for cryptocurrency market. If BTC goes up, other coins go up. If BTC goes down, other coins go down.
Shitcoin
Shitcoin. A coin with no potential value or use. Where altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies in various forms shitcoins are investment vehicles. ICOs. They can have potential value and still be a shitcoin. They are a token rather than the underlying cryptocurrency they run on and thus are categorised separately to altcoins.
Circulating Supply
Circulating Supply. The price of a coin has no meaning on its own. However, the price of a coin, when multiplied by the circulating supply, gives the coin’s market cap.
Market Cap
Market Cap. A stock’s market cap refers to the market value of the company’s outstanding shares.
In the cryptocurrency market, the market cap is used to illustrate a coin’s dominance in the entire cryptocurrency market.
DDOS
DDOS. Short form for ‘Distributed Denial of Service’.
A well-timed DDoS attack at exchanges during volatile movements may be devastating as traders will not be able to execute any order manually and will be at the mercy of their pre-set, or the lack of, limit orders.
ICO
ICO. Short form for “Initial Coin Offering”, which takes a page from the usual IPOs investors know.
Coins bought during ICOs are usually sold for a profit when the coin first hits exchanges. This is due to the initial hype which increases demand for the coin.
On the supply side, ICOs create entry barriers as the buyer has to set up his private wallet to receive the coins from the ICO purchase.
Arbitrage
Arbitrage. The act of buying and selling on different exchanges to earn the difference in the spread. Arbitrage opportunities occur due to differences in exchange reputation, community coin preferences and ease of bank funding.
Take note that fees, limits and prices could change anytime when you are transferring your coins between exchanges, especially during volatile times.
Weak Hands
Weak Hands. Those who cannot be patient and sell at loss when the market is down.
Swing
Swing. Zig zag price movement (Upwards and downwards)
TA
TA. Technical Analysis
Reverse Indicator
Reverse Indicator. Someone who is always wrong predicting price movements.
RSI
RSI. Relative Strength Index
Safu
Safu. A term used to denote ‘Safe’ in cryptosphere.The very first time someone used this term (Safu) was by Bizonnaci YouTube channel, where the YouTuber made this funny video after the Binance CEO tweeted in July 2018 saying ‘Funds are safe.’ But this somehow got turned into a crypto meme and crypto slang.