Memecoin Glossary
Plain-English definitions for the crypto and memecoin terms you'll actually run into — slang, mechanics, and the traps.
40 terms
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40 terms
Airdrop
Free tokens sent to eligible wallets, usually for marketing or to reward early users.
DefinitionAlpha
Information with an edge — a listing, a narrative, a wallet signal — before it's priced in.
DefinitionApe In
Buying fast with no research, usually on vibes.
DefinitionATH
All-time high — the highest price a token has ever traded.
DefinitionBag Holder
Someone stuck holding a token that's down bad with no realistic path back.
DefinitionBonding Curve
A formula that sets token price from supply — more buys, higher price, automatically.
DefinitionCEX
Centralized exchange — a company custodies your funds and matches your trades.
DefinitionDeFi
Decentralized finance — lending, trading, and yield protocols running on smart contracts instead of banks.
DefinitionDegen
A trader who takes high-variance bets on memecoins and early launches, often with minimal research.
DefinitionDEX
Decentralized exchange — you trade directly from your wallet against a smart contract.
DefinitionDiamond Hands
Refusing to sell through drawdowns, pumps, and FUD.
DefinitionDYOR
Do your own research — don't trade someone else's conviction.
DefinitionFloor Price
The lowest price sellers are willing to accept — a soft support level.
DefinitionFOMO
Fear of missing out — buying late into a pump because everyone else already did.
DefinitionFUD
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt — negative talk about a token, sometimes manipulation, sometimes just accurate.
DefinitionGas Fees
The network fee you pay to have a blockchain process your transaction.
DefinitionHODL
Holding a crypto position instead of selling, usually through heavy volatility.
DefinitionImpermanent Loss
The opportunity cost LPs eat when pooled token prices diverge from when they deposited.
DefinitionKOL
Key opinion leader — a crypto influencer whose posts move price.
DefinitionLaunchpad
A platform for deploying new tokens with standard contracts and built-in liquidity.
DefinitionLiquidity Pool
A smart contract holding two tokens that traders swap against on a DEX.
DefinitionMarket Cap
Circulating supply multiplied by price — what the token is 'worth' at today's price.
DefinitionMemecoin
A cryptocurrency whose value comes from culture, community, and attention — not technical utility.
DefinitionMooning
Going vertical — a token pumping hard in a short window.
DefinitionNFA
Not financial advice — a disclaimer on every trading take ever.
DefinitionNGMI
Not gonna make it — the pessimistic counterpart to WAGMI.
DefinitionPaper Hands
Selling at the first sign of red.
DefinitionPump and Dump
A coordinated pump to draw in buyers, then a dump by the organizers onto those buyers.
DefinitionRekt
'Wrecked' — catastrophic losses from a trade, liquidation, or rug.
DefinitionRug Pull
The team exits with the money — pulls liquidity, dumps their bag, or drains the contract.
DefinitionSeed Phrase
12 or 24 words that control your wallet. Anyone with them owns your funds.
DefinitionShill
Promoting a token, usually because you hold it or got paid to promote it.
DefinitionSlippage
The gap between the price you were quoted and the price you actually got.
DefinitionSmart Contract
Code deployed to a blockchain that runs automatically when conditions are met.
DefinitionStaking
Locking tokens to secure a network or a protocol, in exchange for rewards.
DefinitionToken Burn
Sending tokens to a dead address so they're removed from supply forever.
DefinitionTokenomics
How a token's supply, distribution, and incentives are structured.
DefinitionWAGMI
We're all gonna make it — optimism slogan, usually deployed in a red market.
DefinitionWhale
A wallet big enough that its trades move the price.
DefinitionYield Farming
Moving capital between DeFi protocols chasing the highest reward rates.
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