The words traders use every day, what they actually mean, where they came from, and which of our designs references them.
Crypto has its own dialect, and it turns over faster than people think. Below are the nineteen terms that show up in threads, Discords and group chats in 2026, defined without the posturing. Each entry has three parts: a plain definition, where the term came from, and the product in our shop that references it.
If you are shopping for someone who uses these words, the gift guide translates them into actual items.
Holding a position through a large drawdown instead of selling, framed as a virtue rather than an error.
From the 2021 GameStop era, where the 💎🙌 emoji meant "I will not sell". The joke is that refusing to sell is presented as strength even when the position is down 80%.
Archive: Diamond Hands Tee — retiredSomeone who sells at the first sign of trouble, or the first small profit.
The counterpart to diamond hands. It started as an insult about weak conviction and is now mostly used ironically, since most people have sold early at least once.
Hold the asset long-term and ignore short-term price movement.
A 2013 Bitcointalk forum post titled "I AM HODLING" misspelled "hold". The typo stuck and became the name of the strategy.
Related: Buy High, Sell Low Tee — $29"Not financial advice." A disclaimer attached to an opinion so it is not treated as investment advice.
Borrowed from finance forums and made famous by crypto posters who give strong opinions and then cover themselves in one line.
Wear it: NFA Disclosure Tee — $29A trader who takes absurd risks, used as a self-applied badge rather than an insult.
Short for "degenerate gambler". The crypto version is almost affectionate: it signals you know the behaviour is irrational and are doing it anyway.
Wear it: Degen Club Badge Tee — $29The buyers whose orders let earlier holders sell at a good price. Being called it means you arrived last.
A market-structure term that became social slang in the 2021–22 cycle and stayed standard through the 2024–26 memecoin era.
Wear it: Exit Liquidity Mug — $17When a project team drains liquidity or disappears, leaving holders with tokens that are effectively worthless.
From "pulling the rug out from under someone". Became standard vocabulary during the 2021 DeFi cycle and never left.
The fee a blockchain network charges to process a transaction.
Borrowed from "gas" as fuel. On Ethereum, fees are paid in ETH and rise when the network is busy, which is why people check gas before doing anything.
Archive: Gas Fee Receipt Mug — retired Current mug: Exit Liquidity Mug — $17A brief spike beyond a key level that triggers clustered stop-losses, then reverses.
From technical analysis and Smart Money Concepts. Retail traders use it to explain why the wick took their stop and then went the right way without them.
Free tokens sent to wallet addresses, usually to reward early users of a protocol.
Named after literal airdrops. The modern version involves tasks, points and a eligibility checker that usually says no.
Related: Candle Socks — $19"We're all gonna make it" and "not gonna make it" — the optimistic and pessimistic bookends of crypto posting.
WAGMI emerged from meme culture as a collective pep talk; NGMI became the reply when the pep talk aged badly.
A paired reaction: total defeat, then total triumph, often within the same market session.
Grew on 4chan and Twitter around 2021, went mainstream by 2024, and is still the default reply to a green or red candle in 2026.
Wear it: So Over / So Back Tee — $29Fear of missing out, especially buying an asset only because it is already going up.
Older than crypto and borrowed from markets generally. Crypto just made it faster.
A long sideways range: price walks left and right inside support and resistance and never commits to a direction.
Named for the crab's sideways walk. It was the shorthand for the 2025 chop and was still used for Bitcoin consolidation in 2026.
Wear it: Crab Market Socks — $19Approval for doing something authentic or correct, even if it is unpopular.
Internet slang that predates crypto; in crypto it is used to praise a contrarian take or an unapologetic one.
Slang for someone who exits a position early, usually said with contempt in memecoin communities.
Widely used in the "trenches" of memecoin trading. The exact origin is disputed, which is itself very on-brand.
Maximal extractable value: profit taken by block builders or searchers by ordering transactions, including sandwich attacks that wrap around a user's swap.
A technical term from Ethereum research that leaked into everyday trading talk because people kept getting sandwiched and needed a name for it.
Log off and go outside. Said to someone who has been posting too much.
General internet slang, not crypto-specific, but it is the standard reply to anyone who has checked a chart at 3am.
Related: Candle Socks — $19Short for "good morning" — the standard daily roll call on Crypto Twitter.
A greeting that became a ritual: posting GM signals you are awake and online; the reply is usually a GM back, then gn at the end of the day.
| What this page is | A plain-English glossary of crypto trading slang, written by the shop that prints the jokes. |
|---|---|
| Who it is for | Anyone who received a "gm", "NFA" or "exit liquidity" message and needs a translation. |
| Price of related items | $17–$29 USD per item, shipping quoted separately. |
| Payment accepted | USDT / USDC on Ethereum (ERC-20) or BNB Smart Chain (BEP-20), plus PayPal payment links on request. |
| Fulfilment | Print-on-demand, dispatched in 5–10 business days, worldwide shipping with email tracking. |
| Advice | None. Definitions only. Nothing here is financial advice. |
Holding a position through a large drawdown instead of selling. It comes from the 2021 GameStop era and was adopted by crypto as a joke about conviction.
"Not financial advice." Traders add it so their posts are not read as investment advice.
The fee a blockchain charges to process a transaction. On Ethereum it is paid in ETH and changes with network demand.
Short for degenerate. In crypto it is a self-applied label for someone who takes high-risk trades, usually said with humour rather than judgment.
When a project team drains its liquidity or abandons the project, leaving holders with worthless tokens.
The buyer whose purchase lets an earlier holder sell at a good price. Calling someone exit liquidity means they arrived last and funded everyone else's exit.
A long sideways range where price moves left and right without committing to a direction. It is named after the crab's walk.
It is a paired reaction meme: "it's so over" declares total defeat; "we're so back" declares total triumph. Crypto traders use both in the same session.
NFA, degen and so-over / so-back all exist as shirts, and exit liquidity and crab market exist as a mug and socks. The candle socks are the only item that works without knowing any of these words.
See the gift guide →