From “diamond hands” to “the flippening,” we explain 11 of the most popular cryptocurrency terms

If you’ve spent any time reading crypto Reddit or Twitter, there’s a 100 percent chance you’ve encountered — and were potentially baffled – by a dense thicket of acronyms, misspelled words, gamer memes, and more. From FOMO and FUD to laser eyes and whales, get crypto-literate with this beginner’s guide to eleven of the most common pieces of slang.

Diamond hands
Or, as Elon Musk put it in a May tweet: “Diamond hands” is a popular phrase popularized by crypto and stock traders on Reddit. It signifies steadfast adherence to the “HODL” philosophy (see below) — and is often used by online groups banding together to try to pump up the price of a memecoin or other asset. (A related term for timid traders, but with a negative connotation? “Paper hands.”)

FOMO
Stands for “fear of missing out,” and is usually strongest during rapid market rises. FOMO can lead to emotional trading and poor decisions. It’s dangerous because hindsight makes it easy to second-guess — if only you’d timed all your trades perfectly, you could have made more (but no one times all their trades perfectly).

A good way to combat FOMO is to develop a strategy and stick to it, especially if you believe in the long-term value of the asset you’re investing in. One common method is dollar-cost averaging (DCA), where you invest the same amount weekly or monthly, regardless of market movements.

FUD
Stands for “fear, uncertainty, doubt.” It’s a classic PR and propaganda tactic. It refers to strategically spreading misinformation to provoke negative emotional reactions and distort public perception of a product, technology, or candidate.

In the 1980s, mainframe architect and entrepreneur Gene Amdahl is credited with popularizing the term. He used it to describe how IBM salespeople would disparage competitors’ products, painting them as unreliable and untrustworthy.

In crypto, “FUD” often refers to general skepticism about the technology (from media or traditional finance analysts), but supporters of a particular token or protocol can also weaponize the idea to dismiss criticism.

What to do in the face of FUD? Embrace another popular crypto acronym: DYOR. Do your own research.

The flippening
A hypothetical event where Ethereum’s market cap surpasses Bitcoin’s one day. The flippening can also describe any similar scenario where a smaller or less-established token or protocol might overtake a larger rival.

HODL
HODL is perhaps the most popular piece of crypto slang. HODL originated as a typo in the subject line of a 2013 post on a Bitcoin forum: “I AM HODLING” (instead of “holding”).

Pronounced “hoddle,” HODL simply means to buy and hold long-term, regardless of market conditions. Bitcoin fans have even turned the slang into a backronym for “hold on for dear life.”

The original forum post was riddled with typos, but its basic message was prescient. At the time, Bitcoin’s value had plunged from $1,242 to $480 in a month. Panicked traders were jumping ship, but GameKyuuubi (real name Mike, a programmer) wasn’t selling: “In a zero-sum game such as this,” he wrote, “traders can only take your money if you sell.”

The sentiment quickly spread across the Bitcoin community, and countless memes followed. Crypto has gone through multiple boom-and-bust cycles, but at least so far, HODL has been good advice — Bitcoin has been one of the best-performing assets of the past decade (and as mentioned in the FOMO entry above, one good way to HODL is through DCA).

Laser eyes
In 2021, fervent Bitcoin supporters began adding “laser eyes” to their Twitter photos to show support for the cryptocurrency. Prominent figures like NFL superstar Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Elon Musk, Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis, and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor joined in. The meme was often linked to the hashtag #LaserRayUntil100K, signaling support for crypto to break the $100K mark.

Memecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) was the original memecoin — it’s literally a cryptocurrency based on a meme that was popular at the time of its invention. But in 2021, when Dogecoin’s value skyrocketed, a wave of other tokens with ridiculous names emerged (partly enabled by decentralized exchanges like Sushiswap, which allow anyone to easily issue tokens). In May 2021, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated over $1 billion worth of Dogecoin-inspired memecoins, like AKITA, SHIB, and Dogelon Mars (ELON), to COVID-19 relief efforts in India and other causes. These tokens had been sent to Buterin’s crypto wallet in an attempt to convince traders that he was an investor.

Moon (or mooning)
When a cryptocurrency is on a strong upward trajectory, traders tend to describe it as “to the moon” or “mooning.”

Pump and dump
Colluding to inflate an asset’s price, then cashing out before it falls back down. Smaller-cap cryptocurrencies are especially vulnerable to “pump and dump” schemes. A group of traders will conspire to drive up the price of a particular small-cap altcoin. As the price rises, the conspirators will hype it on Twitter, Reddit, Discord, Facebook, YouTube comments, and elsewhere, drawing in more investors and pushing the price even higher. Once the asset reaches a target value, the original group cashes out, making a hefty profit and leaving everyone else to “hold the bag” when it crashes.

Rekt
If you give in to FOMO and end up as the victim of a pump and dump, what happens? You get rekt. “Getting rekt” originally comes from gaming slang, meaning to lose badly, and it’s pretty much the same in crypto.

Whale
The biggest holders of a cryptocurrency are called “whales.” In Bitcoin’s case, those with over 1,000 BTC are typically considered whales. Unlike the vast majority of crypto traders, whales have the potential to influence market movements with their trading activity. According to bitinfocharts.com, as of mid-May 2021, the top 100 Bitcoin addresses (out of over 800,000 active ones) held over 20% of all Bitcoin.