Crypto has its own language, and most of it started as a joke: a typo on a bitcoin forum, a Reddit board’s gallows humor, a lot of rocket emoji. This guide explains the words you’ll see in crypto chats, trading forums and finance news, with a full entry for each one.

Holding and selling

• HODL: holding instead of selling, from a famous 2013 typo of “hold.”
• diamond hands: refusing to sell, however far the price falls. Written 💎🙌.
• paper hands: selling at the first dip. An insult.
• bagholder: someone stuck with an investment that crashed.

Hype, hope and doubt

• to the moon: the hope that a price is about to skyrocket. 🚀
• WAGMI: “we’re all gonna make it,” a rallying cry.
• NGMI: “not gonna make it,” a verdict on a doomed choice.
• FUD: fear, uncertainty and doubt, or any bad news someone wants you to ignore.

Types of traders

• ape in: to buy in fast and big without research.
• degen: someone who takes wild risks, usually said proudly.
• whale: an investor big enough to move a price on their own.

Markets and manias

• meme stock: a stock that soars because it went viral, not because the business changed.

Where this vocabulary came from

Two places did most of the work. The Bitcoin Talk forum gave the world “HODL” in December 2013, and early bitcoin fans filled their posts with moon jokes. Then, in early 2021, the subreddit r/WallStreetBets drove up GameStop and other meme stocks, and its self-mocking slang (apes, degenerates, diamond hands, paper hands, bagholders) went mainstream overnight. Crypto traders adopted the lot.

A lot of this language is ironic. People post “to the moon” under charts that are falling and call themselves degens with a wink. Reading the tone is half of understanding the word.

A quick note

This guide explains slang. It isn’t financial advice, and nothing in it says whether any coin or stock is worth buying.

For more money talk, see our work and money slang guide. For the wider internet vocabulary these words came out of, try our internet slang dictionary or the full A–Z index.