Crypto jargon

Crypto jargon can feel like a foreign tongue, but it maps to simple ideas you can use right away. Whales are people or groups who hold huge amounts of a coin and can move prices with one large trade. Bulls expect prices to rise and buy accordingly. Bears expect prices to fall and bet on declines or sell early. HODL began as a typo and became a philosophy for holding through volatility. Altcoins are any cryptocurrencies that are not the original big one and they vary in purpose and risk. Pump and dump schemes are coordinated efforts to hype a coin, push its price up, and then sell into the excitement, leaving late buyers with heavy losses. REKT is slang for getting badly hurt by such moves or any sharp loss in value. Sats are the smallest unit of the main currency and help people price tiny trades precisely. Shills are promoters who push a coin for their own gain and who often hide conflicts of interest. A bag holder keeps a falling asset in hopes of a rebound and sometimes ends up stuck with near-worthless tokens. “To the moon” is playful talk for rapid price spikes and the hope of big gains. “Not your keys, not your crypto” warns that if you do not control private keys, you do not truly control the coins. Practical steps follow from these words. Diversify holdings to reduce the chance of being REKT by one weak project. Use hardware wallets or other forms of cold storage to keep private keys offline and in your control. Prefer reputable, regulated trading venues for large trades and use caution on small, unvetted markets. Check a project’s code, team, and community before buying and be skeptical of social media hype and sudden influencer endorsements. Learn basic order types like market, limit, and stop to manage risk. Track on-chain signs of large transfers to spot whales moving funds. Treat memes and slang as signals about market mood but not as investment advice. Keep a cool head when chatter gets loud. The crypto world builds its language from inside the community, so learning the lingo is also learning how the market thinks. Use that knowledge to ask better questions, make safer choices, and join conversations without fear.