Crypto Twitter slang: 60 CT terms with meanings and example posts
A glossary in five tables, each term with a tone tag (praise, mock, warning, neutral) and an illustrative post, plus a timeline that dates a term only when a source does.
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Crypto Twitter slang, or CT slang, is the shorthand crypto traders and builders use on X: greetings such as gm and ser, verdicts such as WAGMI and NGMI, trading words such as aped, rekt and exit liquidity, and a memecoin layer (trenches, cabal, CTO, bundled, bonded, dev sold). Much of it is ironic, so the tone of a term often matters more than its literal meaning.
What CT means, and how to read this list
CT is short for Crypto Twitter: the crypto community on X, which kept the abbreviation after the rename. Its slang does three jobs. It is fast (one syllable replaces a sentence), it signals that you belong, and it is mostly ironic. "Probably nothing" means the opposite, and "in it for the tech" is rarely sincere.
That is why each term below carries a tone tag as well as a meaning:
- praise: approval, of a person, a call or yourself;
- mock: ridicule, from gentle to brutal;
- warning: the term names a risk, and you should look harder;
- neutral: description, or a greeting.
Every example post on this page was written for it as an illustration. None is quoted from a real account, and none is a tip.
Core CT vocabulary: gm, ser, wen, WAGMI
The everyday layer: greetings, forms of address and verdicts. Decrypt's 2022 guide to Bitcoin and NFT slang already listed most of them.
| Term | Meaning | Tone | Illustrative post |
|---|---|---|---|
| CT | Crypto Twitter, the crypto community on X. | neutral | "CT is unbearable on red days." |
| gm / gn | Good morning, good night. A daily greeting that builds a sense of community; gn usually means logging off. | neutral | "gm. Coffee, charts, no trades before noon." |
| ser | A deliberate misspelling of "sir". Glossaries say it may have begun as mockery aimed at Indian and East Asian users; most now use it as a jokey form of address. | neutral | "ser, the chart is upside down." |
| fren | Friend, misspelled on purpose. Signals that you are part of the scene. | praise | "Thanks for the thread, fren." |
| anon | An anonymous account, or any reader addressed directly. Can carry a slightly condescending edge. | neutral | "anon, you are not early. You are late with conviction." |
| wen | "When", misspelled to mock anyone expecting quick profits: wen moon, wen Lambo, wen token. | mock | "wen Lambo? wen rent?" |
| WAGMI / GMI | We're all gonna make it, or gonna make it. Optimism, shared or personal. | praise | "Down 40% and still shipping. WAGMI." |
| LFG | Let's (expletive) go. Excitement about a launch, a listing or a green candle. | praise | "Mainnet tomorrow. LFG." |
| IYKYK | If you know, you know: an inside reference left unexplained. | neutral | "That logo change, though. IYKYK." |
| few | Short for "few understand": the poster thinks the point matters and most people miss it. | praise | "Settlement is the whole product. Few." |
| probably nothing | Ironic for "this is probably big". | neutral | "Three teams changed their bios on the same day. Probably nothing." |
| NFA / DYOR | Not financial advice, do your own research. A disclaimer, often tacked ironically onto a strong call. | warning | "Adding more here. NFA, DYOR." |
| alpha | Insider knowledge or an early edge. | praise | "Real alpha: read the docs before the thread." |
| degen | Short for degenerate: a high-risk trader who accepts that it is gambling. Usually said with dark humor. | neutral | "Full degen mode: 20 tabs, zero sleep." |
Trading slang: aped, rekt, exit liquidity
Some of it is older than CT: HODL is a forum typo from 2013. These are the words for what a position is doing to you.
| Term | Meaning | Tone | Illustrative post |
|---|---|---|---|
| HODL | Hold, whatever the market does. A Bitcointalk typo from December 2013, later read as "hold on for dear life". | praise | "Four years in, still HODLing." |
| ape / aped | To buy fast, with little or no research. | neutral | "Aped before reading the contract. Lesson learned." |
| bags | The tokens you hold, usually in a notable amount. | neutral | "Bags are heavy today." |
| bagholder | Someone still holding a token that has fallen, hoping for a rebound. | mock | "Not a bagholder. A long-term believer, apparently." |
| diamond hands | Holding through deep drawdowns without selling. | praise | "Diamond hands since the last cycle." |
| paper hands | Selling at the first drop. | mock | "Paper-handed at minus 10%, watched it triple." |
| BTFD | Buy the (expletive) dip: buying after a fall. | neutral | "Down 15% overnight. BTFD or wait?" |
| FOMO | Fear of missing out: buying because everyone else seems to be. | warning | "Pure FOMO entry. Sized small, at least." |
| FUD | Fear, uncertainty and doubt: negative claims spread to push a price down. | warning | "Not FUD: the audit link returns a 404." |
| rekt | Wrecked: heavy losses from a bad trade. | mock | "Leverage at the top. Rekt by lunch." |
| moon / send it | A sharp rise; "send it" is also taking the risky buy. | praise | "Chart looks ready to send it." |
| whale | A holder large enough to move a token's price with their trades. | neutral | "A whale just moved a chunk of supply to an exchange." |
| exit liquidity | The late buyers who let earlier holders sell at a profit. | warning | "If you can't spot the exit liquidity, it's you." |
| shill | Promoting a token you have a financial stake in, often without saying so. | mock | "Paid shill or true believer? Without a disclosure, same thing." |
| copium / hopium | Irrational hope that the price will go your way. | mock | "Running on pure hopium for this bounce." |
| nuke | A sudden, steep price correction; 10% can qualify. | warning | "Market nuked while I slept." |
| can devs do something | An ironic plea when the price falls. | mock | "Down 30% since launch. Can devs do something?" |
| rug / rugged | The creators drain the liquidity or dump their supply, leaving holders with tokens they cannot sell. | warning | "Liquidity pulled, account deleted. Rugged." |
Memecoin slang (2024 to 2026): trenches, cabal, CTO, bundled
This layer arrived with launchpads where anyone can create a token in seconds and it starts trading at once on a bonding curve. Tokens have been launching on Pump.fun, a Solana launchpad, since January 2024. Most of these words are warnings, because most of these tokens go nowhere: crypto.news reports that fewer than two percent of tokens launched there ever complete their curve.
| Term | Meaning | Tone | Illustrative post |
|---|---|---|---|
| the trenches | The chaotic, high-risk frontier of on-chain memecoin trading, above all brand-new Solana launches. | neutral | "Back from the trenches with two wins and fourteen lessons." |
| jeet | Someone who sells early or panic-sells. Traced to an ethnic slur (see the note below the table). | mock | None given, for the reason in the note. |
| cabal | A suspected group of insiders who coordinate buying and promotion of a token. | warning | "Same twelve wallets in every launch this week. Cabal coin." |
| CTO | Community takeover: holders take over a token its creator abandoned. | neutral | "Dev is gone. CTO call in the group tonight." |
| bundled | The creator bought a large share of supply at launch across many wallets, so the holder list looks spread out when one person controls it. | warning | "Top ten holders bought in the same block. Bundled, passing." |
| bonded (graduated, migrated) | The token completed its launchpad bonding curve and moved into a normal exchange pool. | neutral | "It bonded. Now the real price discovery starts." |
| dev sold | The token's creator sold their supply. Read as a warning, or, ironically, as relief: a creator who still holds a big share can dump it later. | warning | "Dev sold at launch. Still holding?" |
| sniper | A bot or trader buying in the very first moments of a launch. | warning | "Snipers took a third of supply before the chart loaded." |
| KOL | Key opinion leader: an account big enough to move a coin's price by posting about it. | neutral | "Three KOLs posted the same ticker within a minute. Coincidence." |
| PvP | Player versus player: a market where one trader's win is another's loss. | warning | "This isn't a bull market. It's PvP with extra steps." |
| fair launch | A token released with no presale and no insider allocation. | praise | "Says fair launch. The holder map says otherwise." |
A note on "jeet". Know Your Meme and Wiktionary both trace it to a shortened form of an ethnic slur against Indian people; the "just early exit trader" expansion is a later backronym. Know Your Meme documents the word on 4chan's /biz/ board in January 2019, and a public argument among traders about it in March 2024. It is listed here because you will meet it. "Early seller" or "panic seller" says the same thing.
Two of these terms change meaning with context. "Dev sold" reads as a red flag to newcomers, yet Decrypt reported in January 2025 that memecoin traders dislike a creator who still holds much of the supply, so an early dev sale can read as bullish. "Bonded" is a milestone, not an endorsement: the curve completes once enough has been bought, whoever bought it.
Insults and praise: NGMI, HFSP, midcurve
CT ranks people constantly. These are the verdicts, and most of them are mockery. Read them as tone, not as information.
| Term | Meaning | Tone | Illustrative post |
|---|---|---|---|
| NGMI | Not gonna make it: a dismissive verdict on a person or a decision. | mock | "Sold the bottom to buy the top. NGMI." |
| HFSP | Have fun staying poor: mocks people who hold no crypto. Arrogant on purpose. | mock | "Still calling it a bubble? HFSP." |
| midcurve | The overthinking middle of the IQ bell-curve meme (see the next section). | mock | "Fourteen indicators, zero trades. Peak midcurve." |
| gigabrain | Someone with an excellent understanding of crypto. | praise | "Gigabrain thread on fee markets. Bookmark it." |
| smooth brain / smol brain | The opposite of gigabrain: someone lacking basic knowledge. | mock | "Smooth-brain question: what is a bonding curve?" |
| normie / pleb | Someone with little crypto knowledge, or a traditional mindset. | mock | "Normies asking about it at dinner. Top signal?" |
| moonboy | Someone relentlessly bullish on a coin's price. | mock | "Moonboy target: 100x by Friday." |
| -ooor | A suffix that ridicules a person or an idea: a "tradooor" acts knowledgeable and produces noise. | mock | "Another thread from a certified tradooor." |
| down bad | An ironic admission of a big loss. | neutral | "Down bad, but the memes are good." |
| boomer | Old-fashioned people or ideas. | mock | "Boomer take: a profit is real once it's withdrawn." |
Culture words: larp, receipts, touch grass, wassie
The last table is the culture around the trading: in-jokes, mascots, and the two words that decide whether a claim is taken seriously.
| Term | Meaning | Tone | Illustrative post |
|---|---|---|---|
| larp | To pretend to hold, know or have done something: a portfolio, a trade, insider access. From live-action role-play (the larp wallet guide covers the crypto sense). | mock | "Eight-figure portfolio, no address anywhere. Larp." |
| receipts / proof | Evidence. On CT, something checkable: an address, a transaction hash, a statement. A screenshot alone does not count (how to check one). | warning | "Nice profit card. Receipts? Address or it didn't happen." |
| touch grass | Go outside: you are spending too much time online. | mock | "Fourth chart thread this hour. Touch grass." |
| wassie | A green, frog-like creature with a crescent moon, mascot of trading CT. Born in the 2018 bear market. | neutral | "The wassies have seen worse." |
| (3,3) | A game-theory payoff meme popularized by OlympusDAO: if everyone stakes, everyone wins. | neutral | "Don't sell, (3,3)." |
| funds are SAFU | "Your funds are safe": a meme born from a 2018 reassurance by Binance's chief executive, which also named its user protection fund. | neutral | "Withdrawals paused for maintenance. Funds are SAFU, right?" |
| in it for the tech | Claiming to care about the technology rather than the price; often said ironically. | mock | "Down 80%, but I'm in it for the tech." |
What does mid curve mean in crypto?
Midcurve comes from the IQ bell curve meme: a bell curve with a simple character on the left, a crying one in the middle and a monk on the right. The two ends say the same simple thing for different reasons; the middle overcomplicates it. Know Your Meme records a three-character version going viral on Twitter in July 2020, and CoinDesk counted the "midwit" among the memes that define crypto trading in 2022.
In crypto, the middle is the trader with a dozen indicators and a theory for every candle, while both ends just hold. Calling a take midcurve says it is overthought, not that it is stupid. An illustrative exchange:
- Left curve: "Buy, hold."
- Midcurve: "Wait for the weekly close, confirm on three timeframes, hedge with options."
- Right curve: "Buy, hold."
The meme cuts both ways, since anyone can draw themselves at the right end. That is part of the joke.
What larp means on crypto Twitter
On CT, "larp" is an accusation: you are pretending. Pretending to hold a portfolio, to have made a trade, or to have inside knowledge. The word comes from live-action role-play, and our larp meaning explainer follows it from the hobby to the insult. For the object behind the verb, the wallet screen that gets shown, see the larp wallet guide, which separates its three uses.
The answer to "larp" is "receipts". A real holding has an address that resolves on a block explorer; a real trade has a transaction hash. A screenshot, or a PnL card, has neither, which is why it proves nothing on its own. Five tells in a wallet screenshot lists what gives a composed screen away.
A disclosure, since this is our subject: we make a crypto wallet app simulator, used for skits, explainers and demos. Every screen it draws is a mockup, and our terms of use prohibit presenting one as a real balance or proof of funds.
When did these terms appear? A sourced timeline
Most glossaries guess at dates. This one gives a date only where a source does, and says what the date marks: a first documented use, a launch, or a write-up. Absence from the table means no reliable date was found.
| Date | Term | What the date marks |
|---|---|---|
| 18 December 2013 | HODL | A Bitcointalk post titled "I AM HODLING", during a price drop (CoinDesk) |
| 7 March 2018 | funds are SAFU | During unscheduled Binance maintenance, its chief executive tweets that funds are safe; a viral video turns it into "SAFU" (CoinMarketCap Academy) |
| 2018 | wassie | Born in the 2018 bear market (CoinDesk) |
| 6 January 2019 | jeet | Earliest thread on 4chan's /biz/ documented by Know Your Meme |
| 11 July 2020 | midcurve | The three-character bell-curve meme goes viral on Twitter (Know Your Meme) |
| January 2024 | bonded, graduated | Tokens start launching on Pump.fun, priced on a bonding curve until they graduate (crypto.news) |
| March 2024 | jeet | Traders publicly object to the word over its link to an ethnic slur (Know Your Meme) |
| 28 August 2024 | cabal | Decrypt describes the word as often used in crypto for insiders who collaborate to promote tokens |
| 8 October 2024 | PvP | Arthur Hayes publishes "PvP", calling it a phrase shitcoin traders use for the current cycle |
| 20 March 2025 | bonded, migrated | Pump.fun opens PumpSwap, its own exchange, and tokens that complete their curve move there (The Block) |
How to read the tone of a CT post
Three habits make the slang easier to read than a list suggests.
- Assume irony first. "Probably nothing", "funds are SAFU", "in it for the tech" and "can devs do something" almost always mean the opposite of their words.
- Treat the warning words literally. Bundled, dev sold, sniper and rug point to things you can check on chain: holder concentration, the creator's wallet, the first trades after launch.
- Separate the verdict from the evidence. WAGMI, NGMI, HFSP and larp are opinions about people. Receipts are the only word in this list that asks for a fact.
Sources
- Decrypt, GM, WAGMI, GN: Decrypt's ultimate guide to Bitcoin and NFT slang, 2022
- CoinMarketCap Academy, Crypto slang you need to learn, 2022
- CoinDesk, Midwits, wassies and HODLers: the memes that define crypto trading, 2022
- crypto.news, What are "the trenches"? Solana memecoin culture, 2026
- crypto.news, How meme coins are made: bonding curves, Pump.fun, and the math behind rug pulls, 2026
- The Block, Pump.fun launches DEX called PumpSwap to instantly migrate graduated tokens, 2025
- Decrypt, Meme coin airdrops $10,000 worth of tokens to crypto influencers, most instantly sell, 2024
- Decrypt, This crypto trader bagged $840K by creating 17,000 meme coins in 3 months, 2025
- Arthur Hayes, PvP (Crypto Trader Digest), 2024
- Know Your Meme, Jeet (Crypto), 2024
- Know Your Meme, IQ Bell Curve / Midwit, 2020
- CoinMarketCap Academy, Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU), 2022
Questions
What does CT mean in crypto?
CT stands for Crypto Twitter: the traders, builders and commentators who discuss crypto on X. The abbreviation survived the platform's rename to X. CT slang is the vocabulary that grew there, from gm and WAGMI to memecoin terms such as bundled and bonded.
What does mid curve mean in crypto?
It comes from the IQ bell curve meme, where the people at both ends of the curve reach the same simple conclusion and the people in the middle overcomplicate it. Calling a take midcurve means it is overthought: plenty of indicators and theory, and a worse result than the simple answer. It is a mild insult, and often a self-aware one.
What does larp mean on crypto Twitter?
To larp is to pretend: to post a portfolio, a profit or insider access you do not have. The word comes from live-action role-play. On CT it is an accusation, and the usual answer to it is a request for proof that can be checked, such as a wallet address or a transaction hash rather than a screenshot.
What does jeet mean in crypto?
It means someone who sells early or panic-sells a token, and it is used as an insult. Know Your Meme and Wiktionary trace it to a clipping of an ethnic slur against Indian people, and its use was publicly criticized by traders in March 2024. Early seller or panic seller says the same thing without the baggage.
What does bonded mean for a memecoin?
On a launchpad that prices new tokens on a bonding curve, a token has bonded (or graduated, or migrated) when it completes that curve and moves into a normal exchange pool. Fewer than two percent of tokens launched on Pump.fun reach that point, according to crypto.news, so bonding is a milestone, not a verdict on the token.
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