Crypto Slang: The Terms You Will Actually Encounter
A working glossary of the terms crypto communities actually use day to day, translated into plain English instead of left for you to piece together from context.
By Firoz Khan|31 August 2026|Updated 20 September 2026|8 min read
Crypto communities have built up a dense layer of slang, partly for speed, partly as an in-group signal. None of it is difficult once someone actually explains it, which mostly nobody does. Here's the vocabulary that shows up most often, grouped by what it's actually describing.
The market-mood terms
HODL started as a misspelling of 'hold' on a 2013 forum post and stuck as shorthand for holding through volatility rather than trading it. FUD is fear, uncertainty and doubt, usually used to dismiss criticism, sometimes fairly and sometimes as a way to wave away a genuine concern. FOMO is fear of missing out, the feeling that drives buying after a price has already risen sharply. A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices and optimism, a bear market the opposite.
The ownership and security terms
Self-custody means holding your own private keys rather than leaving assets on an exchange. A seed phrase is the set of words that can recreate your wallet and every asset in it, treated with the same seriousness as the keys to a safe. A hot wallet is connected to the internet, a cold wallet isn't. A rug pull is when a project's creators abandon it and disappear with investors' money, usually after building hype specifically to enable the exit.
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The trading terms
DCA, dollar-cost averaging, means buying a fixed amount on a fixed schedule rather than trying to time an entry. Spot trading means buying and holding the actual asset, as opposed to derivatives or leverage, where you're trading a contract based on the price rather than owning the thing itself. A whale is a wallet large enough that its trades can move the market. ATH and ATL are all-time high and all-time low.
The blockchain-mechanics terms
Gas is the fee paid to have a transaction processed, priced in gwei, a fraction of the native coin. Layer 2 refers to a separate network built on top of a main blockchain (the layer 1) specifically to process transactions more cheaply before settling back to the main chain. Mainnet is the live, real-money network, testnet is the practice version developers use with worthless test coins.
The terms worth treating as a red flag
'Guaranteed returns', 'to the moon' and 'when lambo' aren't neutral slang, they're markers of a community built around hype rather than analysis. None of them appear in any credible discussion of risk or fundamentals, and a project or group leaning heavily on this language is telling you something real about how it expects to attract buyers.
A reminder
The FCA risk warning still applies to higher-risk crypto content. Always assess how much risk you are willing to take before buying.
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