It’s been a while since we brought you any updates from the world of cryptocurrency.
The last time it was the manic rise of Dogecoin – the fun and friendly internet currency. If you had any doubts about its seriousness, it’s market cap is still worth over $30 Billion at the time of writing this article.
A lot has happened since then. Couple of ‘dips’ along the way which has unfolded into a significant (purists may scoff and say it’s minor!) dip in the overall market capitalisation of crypto over the last few days. The global cryptocurrency market hit an All Time High of $3 Trillion (more than 4 times from what it was at the beginning of the year) on 9th November 2021 and has since dropped to around $2.5 Trillion today. Bitcoin, too, had hit its All Time High price of $68,789.63* – slightly below the important meme-ical figure of $69,420.
Clearly, adoption of crypto is growing and it has become more mainstream with each day. Cryptocurrency has gotten people hooked from all walks of life and from all age and income spectrums. Maybe it is the lure of crazy returns on investment, the belief in a decentralised world driven by crypto or just the charm of Bollywood’s leading man Ranveer Singh urging people with his “kuch toh badlega” quip in a TV Commercial for one of India’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges. In fact, India as a country now has one of the highest crypto owners with investment platform Coinswitch Kuber reportedly having crossed a userbase of more than 10 million users.
As crypto is becoming part of regular conversation both offline and online, we would like to ensure you do not feel left out of the conversation next time someone brings up crypto at a party.
We have compiled for you a cheat sheet of some of the most commonly used crypto terms so that you are well versed with crypto lingo and can flex your way through the conversation!
- HODL : a slang for the word Hold, as in ‘Hold on to your bitcoins, do not sell!’
Legend has it that few years ago one of the early cryptocurrency holders committed a typo while typing the word Hold in an internet forum and the misspelling has since then stuck. The usage of the term HODL portrays a very strong belief in crypto, urging fellow enthusiasts to hold tight and not sell during a market correction. - Altcoin : Refers to all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin. Since BTC was the first cryptocurrency, and for a long time remained the only one of significant value, all the cryptos that came after it came to be broadly bucketed as ‘altcoins’ (alternate coins).
- SATS – A Sat is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to 0.00000001 BTC.
(Or 100 Million Sats = 1 BTC)
SATS, also known as Satoshis, are named after Satoshi Nakamoto, the alleged creator of bitcoin - Mooning – Meaning the price of a cryptocurrency is seeing a big spike or expected to spike(going to the moon)
- Rekt – a social media play on the word wrecked, referring to huge losses
- Dip – A small correction in the price of a crypto token
Usually used in the phrase – Buy The Dip or Buy The F****ng Dip - White paper – a document that contains the details of a crypto project and its future roadmap. This is useful for people to judge the future potential of a new project.
- FUD – Stands for Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt
Often used in the context of artificial fear being created in the market to drive the prices down.
Don’t fall for the FUD, HODL your SATS! - DeFi – Stands for Decentralised Finance
This refers to the burgeoning decentralised finance industry within the crypto industry where Dapps(decentralised apps that run on a blockchain) allow people to lend and borrow against their crypto assets in a matter of minutes.
In the same context, traditional finance is now called TradFi or CeFi(centralised finance) - Whale – A person or entity holding a large number of tokens of any crypto. Whales have the potential to effect movement in the market with their trading actions and hence crypto traders like to keep track of whale transactions.
- Stablecoin: A stablecoin is any cryptocurrency or blockchain-based token whose value is pegged to another source of value – typically a fiat currency like the US Dollar.
Examples of Stablecoins are Tether(USDT), DAI(USDC) - NFT – An NFT, or Nonfungible Token, is a digital asset that confers ownership of a virtual good, such as a piece of digital artwork or online collectible.
The uniqueness of each NFT is one reason why some NFTs can be very valuable.
The NFT market has exploded this year and you can read about one of the most expensive NFT sales here - DAO – Stands for Decentralised Autonomous Organisation.
A decentralised council or collective typically formed for a purpose like governance of a project or a mission like raising funds to buy an original copy of the US Constitution! - WAGMI – We All Gonna Make it
Referring to the good cheer on social media when the market is in an uptrend - NGMI – Not Gonna Make It
Conversely used when the market is in a downtrend
Next up, we will try to bring you a simplified version of the new buzzword – Metaverse.
The implications are significant enough that it may change the way human beings live, work and play.
*Source: Coinmarketcap.com
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