Bitcoin slang phrases

This is my personal glossary of bitcoin slang phrases that I see on Twitter and elsewhere. It is in alphabetic order. When possible, I add a reference to other sites that also define the term and may go into more depth. When a term is italicized, it is because it is also listed in this same glossary.

While there are other such glossaries on-line, I wanted to include some new words, and exclude some words which are irrelevant nowadays (e.g., this WSJ article includes “Cashening” and “Goxed”) or not really peculiar to the community (e.g., this Changelly article includes “FOMO” and “FUD”). I also stick to slang, and avoid basic technical terms such as “wallet”, “blockchain”, “faucet”. Credit to Nick Vitou for adding a few terms.

Comic made by @linaseiche. Includes the terms precoiner, nocoiner, bitcoiner, BTFD, HODL.

4/5/6/7 figure hell: a price range that your portfolio has either entered into, or is stuck in. Also used jokingly when one’s portfolio is up (cf. urban dict.)

altcoin: a cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin (cf. Investopedia)

bitcoiner: a bitcoin enthusiast (cf. urban dict.)

Bobo: refers to this edit of Pepe to look like a bear. Represents someone who wants a bear market. Seems to hail from /biz/, like the pink wojak.

Bobo

BTFD: “buy the fucking dip”; an exhortation to buy something during a price decline (cf. urban dict.)

crabbing: when something’s price “moves sideways” (does not significantly go up or down, when seen on a chart)

Few understand this: a meme phrase, apparently started by the bitcoiner Pierre Rochard, who may have said it for the first time in this tweet. It is repeated in many places. The meaning is plainly that few understand the topic which is referenced; it is often implied that those “few” are an elite of “in-the-know”, well-informed bitcoiners.

fiat: an adjective which has been extended from its sense in the phrase “fiat currency”, chiefly by the bitcoiner and economist Saifedean Ammous. Used to form such phrases as “fiat university” and “fiat food”, it means roughly that something is debased by its deep connection with government-funded endeavors, which are distortions of the market process, and therefore are able to exist without being of value to anybody.

fiat brain: a nocoiner, especially someone who is not used to bitcoin and has a hard time understanding it. See fiat.

HFSP: “have fun staying poor”; used by bitcoiners against nocoiners (cf. urban dict.)

HODL: humorous misspelling of “hold”. May be capitalized or not. It just means “hold”, but it connotes an attitude of holding bitcoins for a long time. It was inspired by this forum post, which made it into a meme. (cf. Investopedia)

Original post that started HODL as a slang; on weak hands, see below

Chart illustrative of the mindset connoted by speaking of “hodling”; made by user Scorface on Reddit

hyperbitcoinization: theoretical event in which bitcoin becomes the world’s dominant form of money (cf. Nakamoto Institute)

laser eyes: added to a profile picture (e.g., Tom Brady’s) to show that the person is bullish on bitcoin

Tom Brady’s laser eyes profile picture

(bitcoin) maximalist: someone who wishes to maximize the amount of bitcoin that he holds, preferring to hold value in the form of bitcoin rather than other assets. See Investopedia for more on the mindset that leads them to do this.

moon: something is said to “go to the moon” (or simply to “moon”, as a verb) when its price goes way up. (cf. urban dict.) When said with enthusiasm, it is often accompanied, or implied, by usage of the rocket emoji (🚀).

newcoiner: someone new to bitcoin, especially in the sense of having only recently bought bitcoin for the first time

NGMI: “not gonna make it”, or “never gonna make it”; said mainly of persons who invest poorly (cf. urban dict.)

Number Go Up Technology: refers to bitcoin as having a technology which causes its price to keep going up. May be capitalized or not. Key features thought to cause this are its limited supply and difficulty adjustment function (cf. Ministry of Nodes); sometimes abbreviated as “NgU technology”

nocoiner: someone who owns no bitcoin, especially someone who does not believe in bitcoin and speaks against it; pejorative. Sometimes spelled “no-coiner”. (cf. urban dict.)

orange pill: by analogy with “red pill” and related terms, to take the “orange pill” is to become convinced of the merits of bitcoin

precoiner: someone who is interested in bitcoin but has not bought any yet (cf. What Is Bitcoin)

rug: short for “rug pull”, describing an exit scam where an altcoin’s developers sell off all their coins and leave while the price goes down (cf. urban dict.)

sats: satoshis, the smallest unit of the bitcoin currency recorded on the blockchain. (cf. Bitcoin Wiki)

shitcoin: pejorative term for an altcoin (cf. Investopedia)

stacking (sats): acquiring more and more sats, that is, collecting more and more bitcoin, as a maximalist would do (cf. urban dict.)

weak hands: someone who panics and sells (bitcoin or something else) when the price goes down; “strong hands” or “diamond hands”, by contrast, do not do this. (cf. urban dict.)

(bitcoin) whale: someone who owns a lot of bitcoin, especially a sizable fraction of its limited supply (cf. Investopedia)