The Most Frequently Used Cryptocurrency Terms

An altcoin is any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin was the
first ever crypto, anything that’s come after it is described as an altcoin, or
alternative coin.

ATH stands for an all-time high. When you see this, it showcases the highest
price that a given cryptocurrency has ever hit.

Something that you don’t want to be in the crypto space is a bagholder.
Bagholders are folks holding onto a cryptocurrency that is sinking in value and
doesn’t have any significant future prospects. In many cases, bagholders refuse
to sell after a substantial price increase, which leaves them holding the bag
with a much less valuable coin at the end of the day.

Someone that is bearish thinks that the value of a cryptocurrency is going to
decrease.

The blockchain is the computerized ledger that keeps a record of all
cryptocurrency transactions. It’s secured by cryptography to keep things secure.
Blockchain data is not stored in a singular place. Instead, it’s stored across
thousands of computers around the globe.

If you’re bullish on a digital currency, that means that you expect the price
of that coin is going to increase. Someone that is bullish is the opposite of a
person that is bearish.

Cold storage is when you store your cryptocurrency private keys and
information offline. By doing this, you’re less likely to run into hacking
issues that could cause you to lose your crypto funds. If you’d like to do this,
you’ll have two main options. You can use either a paper or hardware wallet.
You’ll want to avoid software-based wallets if you’d like to utilize cold
storage, as this type of wallet is still connected to the internet.

When a cryptocurrency has a new all-time high, it often goes through a
correction period. With correction, the price of the coin will decrease and
level off before beginning to rise again.

Crypto is a generic term that can be used to describe anything related to
cryptocurrencies.

Cryptocurrencies use the process of cryptography to help create and manage
transactions of digital currency. It’s this process that helps secure
cryptocurrency.

DCA stands for dollar cost averaging. This is a common investment term that
refers to buying into an investment in parts at different prices. Instead of
buying your investment all at once, you’ll spread out your purchases over time
and end up buying at different rates which will then end up giving you an
average purchase price.

A term that you’ll commonly see on cryptocurrency threads is DYOR. This
stands for do your own research. As you’ll find, there are tons of “experts” out
there in the crypto space. However, you should not just take the word of some
random person on the internet. Instead, take the time to do your own research
and determine which cryptocurrencies are best for you and your needs.

A cryptocurrency exchange is a website that allows clients the ability to buy
or sell digital currency funds. One of the most popular exchanges is Coinbase.
We’ve included a link below if you’d like to check their exchange out.

When you think of standard money like the US dollar, that’s a fiat currency.
Fiat currency is a type of money that is backed by some form of government.
Since cryptocurrencies are decentralized and not tied to any government, they
are not fiat currencies.

FOMO stands for fear of missing out. With cryptocurrency, FOMO occurs
regularly when a digital currency begins to take off. Often, you’ll feel like
you’re going to miss out if you don’t buy some of the coins that are
skyrocketing.

Think of a cryptocurrency fork much like a fork in a road. In some instances,
a crypto may fork into two different blockchains. In many cases, this happens
when the blockchain’s code is updated due to additional governance rules.
Bitcoin had a famous fork in 2017 when Bitcoin Cash was rolled out.

FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Unfortunately, FUD is very
common in the cryptocurrency space as folks spread negativity about
cryptocurrencies that they are not fans of. You’ll find lots of FUD on crypto
forums and pages.

A FUDster is a person that is spreading FUD amongst the cryptocurrency
community.

Hardware wallets are one of the options for how you can store your
cryptocurrencies and private keys. To many folks, these hardware wallets are the
most secure way to store your crypto data, as they are offline devices that are
not connected to the internet. Popular brands of hardware wallets include Trezor
and Ledger Nano S.

In the crypto word, hodl represents hold. So, instead of saying hold when
you’re encouraging someone to hang on to their cryptocurrency investments,
you’ll instead use hodl. Legend has it that a drunken Bitcoin forum user
misspelled it years ago, and it’s been used ever since. In some circles, hodl
also stands for hold on for dear life.

ICO stands for initial coin offering. An ICO takes places any time that a new
cryptocurrency hits the market. ICOs in the crypto world are very similar to IPO
(initial public offering) in the stock market.

With cryptocurrencies, there are two types of keys: public and private.
Public keys are what you’ll use to tell people where to send coins to you.
However, private keys allow you to sell or transfer your cryptocurrency funds.
If you lose your private crypto keys, then you’ll lose the ability to transact
the digital currency that you own. Because of this, you should strongly consider
using a cryptocurrency wallet to keep your keys safe.

Lambo is short for Lamborghini, as in the high-end Italian sports cars. If
you’ve joined any cryptocurrency-related forums or groups, then you’re most
likely already used to the Lambo thing. In the crypto world, images of Lambos
are often posted as what everyone hopes to buy when their cryptocurrency
investments take off.

Along with Trezor, Ledger Nano S is one of the most popular hardware wallets
in the cryptocurrency space. With this particular crypto wallet, your funds are
saved offline on a specialized and secure USB flash drive device.

As with stocks, you can also place limit orders on cryptocurrencies. With
this process, you’d set a price at which you’d be willing to buy or sell a
digital currency. Then, an automated process will execute your transaction if
the amount you state is hit. Limit orders are great since they allow you to not
have to watch the market closely if you know what price you’d like to buy or
sell at.

Much like you can with stocks and bonds, you can also trade cryptocurrencies
on margin. However, this is not something that beginners should do, as it is
highly risky. With margin trading, you’ll essentially get a loan against your
existing cryptocurrencies to try and make higher profits on new ones.

A cryptocurrency’s market cap is the total value of that digital currency.
It’s calculated by taking the total number of coins in existence and multiplying
it by the current price for each coin. To view the current market cap of many
different cryptocurrencies, you can use the link to CoinCap.

Mining is the process of verifying cryptocurrency transactions. Without folks
mining, cryptocurrencies would not exist. To mine cryptos, you’ll need a pretty
stellar computer setup since it takes loads of computing power to process these
transactions.

Another standard set of terms that you’ll find in the crypto word is moon or
mooning. Any time that you see these, folks are saying that they hope their
investments in cryptocurrencies will grow to astronomical levels. For example,
you might see someone post “To the moon!”

In late 2017 and early 2018, we saw lots of pumping and dumping in
cryptocurrencies. With pump and dump, a digital currency gets lots of attention,
which ends up increasing demand for the coin and driving its price up rapidly.
However, it’s often followed by a steep price decline as investors sell off
their coins to collect a quick profit.

ROI is a common term in all investing circles. It stands for return on
investment. ROI is expressed as a percentage and showcases how much profit has
been made compared to the initial investment. For example, if you double your
money, your ROI would be 100%.

A stable coin is a cryptocurrency that has very low volatility overall.
Unfortunately, due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, there are not too many
stable coins out there.

Another option for storing your cryptocurrency secure data is with the use of
a software wallet. Unlike hardware wallets, software wallets are connected to
the internet and are either website- or desktop-based. Due to their connection
to the internet, software wallets are not considered as secure as hardware
wallets since there is a possibility of them getting hacked.

In the crypto world, TA can mean either trend analysis or technical analysis.
In both cases, TA refers to reviewing charts of current and historic performance
to try and predict what will happen next.

Whenever you see this phrase posted, it’s being done so by someone that feels
like something positive is currently happening. For example, if you and some
buddies bought into a new high-risk cryptocurrency, one of your friends might
post this phrase when he sees some good things occurring with the price of the
coin.

A ticker symbol is the trading signal for a cryptocurrency. For example, the
ticker symbol of Bitcoin is BTC. Use of ticker symbols can make it easy for you
to locate cryptocurrencies that you want to buy or sell via an exchange.

With most cryptocurrency transactions, you have to pay a minor transaction
fee. This fee is used to help fund the miners that are processing and verifying
the transaction.

Trezor is another hardware wallet that is similar to Ledger Nano S. With
Trezor, your private crypto keys will be stored securely on a device that is not
connected to the internet.

A cryptocurrency wallet is what you can use to store your secure crypto data
like your private keys. Wallets can come in paper, software, hardware, or
desktop forms. Use of a crypto wallet is highly advised so that you can help
limit the likelihood of losing access to your digital currency funds.

A whale is someone with a lot of money. Specific to cryptocurrencies, whales
are individuals that own a significant amount of digital currency.