Bags meaning: what "bags" and "a bag" mean in crypto and money slang
What bags means in crypto, the phrases built on it (heavy bags, moon bags, bagholder, don't marry your bags), and how it differs from "the bag" in money slang.
Published:
In crypto, bags are the coins or tokens you hold, usually a sizable position in one asset, and the word often hints that the position is down. In money slang, "the bag" means money or a big payday, as in "secure the bag".
What bags means
In crypto, bags are the coins or tokens you hold, usually a sizable position in one asset. "My bags" means my holdings. CoinMarketCap's glossary defines a bag as a large quantity of one cryptocurrency, or a whole portfolio, and stresses that there is no threshold: a bag is a bag because its owner cares about it.
The word leans negative. Ledger Academy's glossary notes that it is often used sarcastically about holdings that have lost value, for example after a rug pull or a pump and dump. That is where bagholder comes from: the person still carrying the bag after everyone else got out.
Outside crypto, the same word points the other way. In money slang, "the bag" is money or a big payday, as in secure the bag. Context decides: a trader complaining about bags is stuck; a rapper talking about the bag got paid.
Phrases built on bags
| Phrase | What it means | Tone |
|---|---|---|
| my bags | The tokens I hold | neutral |
| heavy bags | A big position, usually one that has fallen (Ledger) or simply a high-value holding (Binance) | mock or self |
| moon bag | A holding kept for the long run, hoping it rises enormously | neutral |
| bagholder | Someone stuck with a position that collapsed | mock |
| don't marry your bags | Folk warning against emotional attachment to a holding, quoted by Ledger and CoinMarketCap | warning |
How bags is used
Tone: neutral to mock, with a lot of self-mockery. Talking about your bags can be a plain update, a lament, or an admission of interest: a holder praising a coin may be accused of "talking their bags", and readers discount the praise accordingly. Binance Academy links the habit of keeping losing bags while selling winners to a known bias, the disposition effect, rooted in loss aversion.
Illustrative example posts (written for this page, not quoted from anyone):
- "Checked my bags this morning. Closed the app. Went for a walk." (self-mockery)
- "Every thread he writes is about the coin he holds. Just talking his bags." (mock)
- "Sold most of it, kept a small moon bag in case." (neutral)
Where bags comes from
None of the crypto glossaries we checked gives an etymology for bags, and we found no source dating its first crypto use, so we give none. The word sits next to bagholder, which Wiktionary builds on the idiom "left holding the bag". Michael Quinion of World Wide Words traces that idiom to 18th-century Britain, where giving someone the bag to hold meant leaving them with the blame while everyone else got away.
The money sense has a different line. Know Your Meme traces "secure the bag" to hip-hop: on November 23, 2016, WorldStarHipHop released the audio of "Secure the Bag" by Lil Uzi Vert and Gucci Mane, and by July 2017 Urban Dictionary defined "the bag" as anything you want. Know Your Meme also records the presidential candidate Andrew Yang using the phrase in March 2019, during his campaign.
Not to be confused with
- Bags and the bag. Crypto bags are often a burden; the bag in money slang is the prize.
- Heavy bags. Glossaries disagree on whether heavy means big or big and losing; in conversation, it is usually both.
- Bags and a wallet balance. Bags are positions, not proof. A screenshot of someone's bags shows what they chose to show, which is why proof of funds is a separate question.
Related terms
- Bagholder: stuck with the bag.
- Secure the bag: the money sense.
- HODL: holding your bags on purpose.
- Shill: promoting what you hold.
- Crypto Twitter slang: the wider vocabulary.
Sources
- CoinMarketCap Academy, Bag definition, undated (consulted 2026)
- Binance Academy, Bags, undated (consulted 2026)
- Know Your Meme, Secure the Bag, 2019
- World Wide Words, Left holding the bag, 2002
Questions
What does "my bags" mean in crypto?
It means the coins or tokens you hold. CoinMarketCap describes a bag as a large quantity of one cryptocurrency, or a whole portfolio, with no fixed threshold. Said with a sigh, "my bags" usually means positions that are down.
What are heavy bags in crypto?
Glossaries disagree. Ledger Academy uses heavy bags for a large holding that has lost value since it was bought; Binance Academy uses it for holding a relatively high value of one coin. In conversation, heavy usually means a big position that hurts.
What is a moon bag?
A holding kept for the long run in the hope that it rises enormously, that it goes "to the moon". Ledger Academy and CoinMarketCap both define moon bags as positions held over months or years for a large expected gain.
What does "secure the bag" mean?
It is money slang, not crypto slang: get paid, land the deal, make the money. It spread from hip-hop, with a 2016 track titled "Secure the Bag" by Lil Uzi Vert and Gucci Mane. In that sense, a bag is something you want; in crypto, bags are often something you are stuck with.
Compose the screen instead of describing it
Your tokens, your amounts, your accent, laid out in the browser, then opened on your phone at your own address. A mockup, and we never pretend otherwise.
- Unlimited tokens, amounts and accents
- Add it to your home screen; it opens like an app
- Live market prices that keep moving
- Your own address, mylarpwallet.com/you
Cancel anytime · Secure payment by Stripe · See the wallet
Keep reading
- Guide: Larp wallet and crypto larping, explainedThe three meanings the sources confuse, where the line between a mockup and a deception falls, and what the product makes.
- Should you post your crypto gains? What one screenshot gives awayA gains screenshot is rarely just a number. What a typical one reveals, field by field, who reads these posts, safer ways to…
- Wen meaning: "when", misspelled, crypto's most impatient questionWhat wen means, the combinations you will see (wen moon, wen lambo, wen token), illustrative posts with a tone tag, what is…
- DYOR meaning: "do your own research" in cryptoWhat DYOR means, how it works as advice, disclaimer and dodge, where the phrase came from before crypto, and what doing your…