Crypto Twitter slang: a field guide to 64 CT words, with sample posts
A field guide to the words of CT, grouped by what they do in a post, with a mood tag and an invented sample for each, plus a short dated history of the terms whose origin a source can pin down.
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Jump to: Reading the mood · Everyday words · Verdicts · Money moves · Memecoins · Safety and launches · Culture · Probably nothing · Mid curve · Larp · History
The language of a crowd that never logs off
CT stands for Crypto Twitter, the crypto crowd on X, and it still goes by the old initials. Its vocabulary has a single purpose: say a lot in very few letters while showing the reader you are one of them. A good deal of it is sarcasm. "Probably nothing" is a drum roll, and "in it for the tech" is seldom meant.
So every word below is tagged for mood as well as meaning. The tags are:
- cheer: approval, of someone, of a call, of yourself;
- jab: a put-down, from a friendly nudge to a savage one;
- red flag: the word names a danger, so look closer;
- plain: a description or a hello with no edge.
All sample posts were invented for this page. None comes from a real account and none is advice.
Reading the mood before the words
Three habits help more than memorizing a list.
- Suspect sarcasm first. "Funds are SAFU", "probably nothing", "can devs do something" and "in it for the tech" nearly always say the reverse of what they say.
- Take the red-flag words at face value. Bundled, dev sold, sniper and rug each point at something you can verify on chain: who holds the supply, what the creator's wallet did, who bought in the first seconds.
- Keep opinion and proof apart. WAGMI, NGMI, HFSP and larp are verdicts on people. Of everything in this guide, only "receipts" asks for a fact.
Everyday words: greetings, address and hype
The daily layer, in alphabetical order. Decrypt's 2022 guide to Bitcoin and NFT slang already covered most of it.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| alpha | An early edge or information that few have. | cheer | "The alpha was in the changelog all along." |
| anon | An anonymous account, or whoever you are addressing. It can come with a faint air of superiority. | plain | "anon, being late and sure of yourself is still being late." |
| CT | Crypto Twitter, the crypto crowd on X. | plain | "CT turns into a group therapy session every time the chart bleeds." |
| degen | From degenerate: a trader who takes big risks and admits it is gambling, usually with a grin. | plain | "Degen hours: three screens, no plan, one snack." |
| NFA / DYOR | Not financial advice, do your own research. A disclaimer that is often stuck, ironically, onto a very confident call. | red flag | "Loading up on more. Not advice, do your homework." |
| fren | Friend, mistyped on purpose. A sign that you belong. | cheer | "Appreciate the walkthrough, fren." |
| few | Short for "few understand": the poster thinks a point is important and that most people miss it. | cheer | "Distribution beats technology. Few." |
| gm / gn | Good morning and good night. A ritual hello that builds a feeling of community, with gn meaning the poster is signing off. | plain | "gm all. Tea first, charts second." |
| IYKYK | If you know, you know: a reference to an inside joke that is left unexplained. | plain | "That new mascot, though. IYKYK." |
| LFG | Let's (expletive) go: excitement over a launch, a listing or a green candle. | cheer | "Testnet is live. LFG." |
| probably nothing | A sarcastic way to hint that something big is going on. The long version is further down. | plain | "Founders all updated their avatars this morning. Probably nothing." |
| ser | A purposeful misspelling of "sir". Glossaries note that it may have started as mockery of Indian and East Asian users, though most people now use it as a joking way to address someone. Full entry. | plain | "ser, I think your chart is upside down." |
| WAGMI / GMI | We are all going to make it, or just "going to make it". A shared or personal dose of optimism. | cheer | "Portfolio cut in half, repo still getting commits. WAGMI." |
| wen | "When", spelled wrong to tease anyone who expects fast riches: wen moon, wen Lambo, wen token. Not to be mixed up with the WEN token, a joke asset named after the question that CoinDesk covered in January 2024. | jab | "wen Lambo? first wen groceries." |
Verdicts: who is smart, who is not
CT grades people all day long. Treat these words as tone, not as information.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| boomer | A person or idea seen as old-fashioned. | jab | "Boomer rule: it only counts as profit once you can withdraw it." |
| down bad | A wry way to admit a large loss. | plain | "Down bad this week, but the jokes are holding up." |
| gigabrain | Someone with outstanding insight into crypto. | cheer | "Gigabrain explanation of why fees spike. Saving it." |
| HFSP | Have fun staying poor, aimed at people with no crypto. Smug on purpose. Full entry. | jab | "Bubble, you say? HFSP." |
| midcurve | The overthinking middle of the IQ bell curve meme, explained in its own section. | jab | "Nine indicators, no position. Textbook midcurve." |
| moonboy | A person who is endlessly bullish on a coin's price. | jab | "Moonboy math: it triples every Tuesday." |
| NGMI | Not going to make it: a dismissive judgment of a person or a choice. | jab | "Panic-sold the low, bought back the high. NGMI." |
| normie / pleb | Someone who knows little about crypto or thinks in traditional terms. | jab | "My dentist asked about it. Is that a top signal?" |
| -ooor | A suffix that mocks a person or idea: a "tradooor" sounds expert and produces noise. | jab | "Threadooor strikes again." |
| smooth brain / smol brain | The opposite of gigabrain: someone missing the basics. | jab | "Smooth-brain question incoming: what is gas?" |
Money moves: aped, rekt, exit liquidity
These words describe what a position is doing to its owner. A few are older than CT, and HODL, for instance, began as a typo on a forum in 2013.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| ape / aped | To buy quickly with little or no homework. | plain | "Aped in before opening the contract. Costly lesson." |
| bags | The tokens you hold, normally a big stack, with a hint that they are underwater. Heavy bag and moon bag are covered under safety and launches. | plain | "My bags weigh a ton this morning." |
| bagholder | Someone stuck holding a fallen token and waiting for it to come back. | jab | "I am not a bagholder, I am a patient early adopter, allegedly." |
| BTFD | Buy the (expletive) dip: buying after a fall. | plain | "Red across the board. BTFD or sit still?" |
| copium / hopium | Hope with no basis that the price will turn your way. Full entry. | jab | "Breathing pure copium until the next bounce." |
| can devs do something | A sarcastic plea whenever a price sinks. | jab | "Half the value gone since Monday. Can devs do something?" |
| diamond hands | The ability to hold through deep drawdowns without selling. | cheer | "Diamond hands through two winters now." |
| exit liquidity | The late buyers whose purchases let earlier holders cash out at a gain. | red flag | "If you cannot tell who the exit liquidity is, look in the mirror." |
| FOMO | Fear of missing out: buying because everybody else seems to. | red flag | "Pure FOMO buy. At least I kept it small." |
| FUD | Fear, uncertainty and doubt: negative claims spread to push a price down. | red flag | "Not FUD, just a dead audit link." |
| HODL | Hold, whatever the market does. It began as a typo on Bitcointalk in December 2013 and was later read as "hold on for dear life". | cheer | "Five years in and still holding." |
| moon / send it | A sharp rally; "send it" also means taking the risky buy. | cheer | "This setup is begging to be sent." |
| nuke | A sudden, steep drop in price; even 10% can count. | red flag | "The market nuked while I slept." |
| paper hands | Selling at the first dip. | jab | "Paper-handed at minus 10%, then watched it triple." |
| rekt | Wrecked: badly hurt by a trade. | jab | "Max leverage at the top. Rekt before lunch." |
| rug / rugged | The creators pull the liquidity or dump their supply, and holders cannot sell what they own. | red flag | "Pool drained, socials wiped. Rugged." |
| shill | To promote a token in which you hold a stake, often without saying so. | jab | "Shill or believer? With no disclosure, I cannot tell." |
| whale | A holder big enough to move a price alone. | plain | "A whale just shifted a big slice of supply onto an exchange." |
Memecoin words (2024 to 2026): trenches, cabal, CTO, bundled
This layer grew out of launchpads where anyone can mint a token in seconds and start trading it on a bonding curve straight away. Pump.fun, a Solana launchpad, has hosted launches since January 2024. Most of the words are cautions, since most such tokens fizzle: crypto.news reports that fewer than two percent of tokens launched there ever complete their curve.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| bonded (graduated, migrated) | The token finished its launchpad curve and moved to a regular exchange pool. | plain | "It bonded, so the real price hunt starts now." |
| bundled | The creator bought a large share of supply at launch through many wallets, so the holder list looks varied while a single person controls it. | red flag | "Ten biggest wallets all bought in one block. Bundled, skipping." |
| cabal | A suspected circle of insiders that coordinates buying and promotion of a token. | red flag | "Same dozen wallets show up in every new launch. Cabal coin." |
| CTO | Community takeover: holders step in to run a token whose creator walked away. | plain | "Creator vanished. CTO meeting in the chat at nine." |
| dev sold | The token's creator sold their supply. That is a warning for most people, but a few read it as relief, since a creator who still holds a big share can dump it later. | red flag | "Dev sold in the first minute. Still in?" |
| fair launch | A token released with no presale and no insider allocation. | cheer | "Called a fair launch. The holder map disagrees." |
| jeet | Someone who sells early or in a panic. It traces back to an ethnic slur (see the note below the table). | jab | No sample, for the reason in the note. |
| KOL | Key opinion leader: an account large enough to move a coin by posting about it. | plain | "Three KOLs posted the same ticker within sixty seconds. Funny coincidence." |
| PvP | Player versus player: a market where one trader's gain is another's loss. | red flag | "Forget a bull market. This is PvP wearing a costume." |
| sniper | A bot or trader that buys in the first instants of a launch. | red flag | "Snipers had a third of supply before the chart loaded." |
| the trenches | The chaotic, high-risk frontier of on-chain memecoin trading, above all fresh Solana launches. | plain | "Back from the trenches: two wins, fourteen lessons." |
A word on "jeet". Both Know Your Meme and Wiktionary trace the term to a clipped form of an ethnic slur against Indian people. The expansion "just early exit trader" came later, as a backronym. Know Your Meme records the word on 4chan's /biz/ board in January 2019 and a public argument among traders about it in March 2024. It is in the table because you will run into it. "Early seller" or "panic seller" says the same thing.
Two of these words shift with context. Newcomers hear "dev sold" as an alarm, yet Decrypt reported in January 2025 that memecoin traders dislike a creator who still sits on a lot of supply, so an early sale can look bullish. And "bonded" marks a threshold, not a blessing: the curve fills once enough has been bought, whoever did the buying.
Safety and launch words: honeypot, renounced, TGE
Four words that decide whether a token can be sold, altered or even exists yet. Three link to their own entries.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| heavy bag / moon bag | A heavy bag is a large position that has dropped in value. A moon bag is a small piece you keep after taking profit, in case the price runs further. | plain | "Banked most at 3x and kept a moon bag. The heavy bag stays as tuition." |
| honeypot | A token you can buy and never sell: the contract stops most holders through a blacklist, a sell tax near 100%, an impossible minimum or a frozen account. Full entry. | red flag | "Buys confirmed, every sell reverted. Honeypot." |
| renounced | A contract whose owner gave up admin rights permanently, usually by setting the owner to the zero address so nobody can call owner-only functions. It removes some risks, such as changing fees, without making a token safe. Full entry. | plain | "Ownership renounced. The owner's doors are shut, the market's are not." |
| TGE / pre-TGE | Token generation event: the day a project's token is first created on-chain and handed out. Pre-TGE is the period before, when points, waitlists or testnet activity may turn into tokens later. A TGE is not a sale (ICO), a listing or an airdrop, although it can arrive together with one. | plain | "Points are play money until TGE." |
Culture words: larp, receipts, touch grass, wassie
What surrounds the trading: private jokes, mascots, and the two words that decide whether a claim is believed.
| Word | What it means | Mood | In a post |
|---|---|---|---|
| (3,3) | A game-theory meme made famous by OlympusDAO: if all stake, all win. | plain | "Do not sell. (3,3)." |
| funds are SAFU | "Your funds are safe": a meme born from a 2018 reassurance by Binance's chief executive that also named its user protection fund (we are not affiliated with Binance). | plain | "Withdrawals paused again. Funds are SAFU, right?" |
| in it for the tech | A claim to care about the technology over the price, usually said with a wink. | jab | "Down 80% and still here for the tech." |
| larp | To pose as holding, knowing or having done something: a portfolio, a trade, privileged access. It comes from live-action role-play, and the larp wallet guide covers the crypto meaning. | jab | "Nine-figure portfolio, not one address in sight. Larp." |
| receipts / proof | Evidence you can check: an address, a transaction hash, a statement. A bare screenshot does not qualify (how to test one). | red flag | "Pretty profit card. Receipts? No address, no belief." |
| touch grass | Go outside: you are online too much. | jab | "Fifth chart thread this hour. Touch grass." |
| wassie | A green, frog-like creature with a crescent moon, the mascot of trading CT, born in the 2018 bear market. | plain | "The wassies have survived worse." |
Probably nothing: the deadpan wink
The phrase means probably something. A poster flags a detail while pretending to wave it away, which is how readers learn to look at it. Decrypt's 2022 slang guide puts it plainly: a thing described as probably nothing is definitely something. The phrase also circulates as a meme, captioning a screenshot or a cryptic image.
- Origin. No first use is documented. CoinMarketCap Academy credits the pseudonymous account @bowtiedbull with popularizing it, along with "few".
- Test it. Ask what exactly is claimed, whether anything outside the post can confirm it, and who benefits if readers buy before checking. If the answers are "unclear", "no" and "the poster", it probably is nothing.
- The Discord case. On November 8, 2021, Discord's chief executive posted a screenshot of crypto wallet connections in Discord's settings with the caption "probably nothing". TechCrunch glossed the phrase as shorthand for "this will be a huge deal". Users threatened to cancel paid subscriptions, and on November 11 he said there were no current plans to ship the concept, as NME reported.
- Limits. Inside crypto it is a wink. Outside, it can read as a confirmation that something unwelcome is coming.
What does mid curve mean in crypto?
The term comes from the IQ bell curve meme: a curve with a simple figure on the left, a distressed one in the middle and a hooded sage on the right. The two ends give the same plain answer for different reasons, and the middle makes it complicated. Know Your Meme records a three-figure 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 simply hold. Calling a take midcurve says it is overbuilt, not that it is dumb. A made-up exchange shows the shape:
- Left of the curve: "Buy and hold."
- Middle: "Wait for the weekly close, confirm on three timeframes, hedge with options."
- Right of the curve: "Buy and hold."
The meme cuts both ways, because anyone can place themselves at the right end. That is part of the humor.
Larp on CT: the accusation and the answer
On CT, "larp" accuses someone of pretending: to hold a portfolio, to have made a trade, to know something from inside. The word comes from live-action role-play, and the larp meaning explainer follows it from the hobby to the insult. The object behind the verb, the wallet screen that gets shown, is covered in the larp wallet guide.
The standard reply is "receipts". A real holding has an address that resolves on a block explorer, and a real trade has a transaction hash. A screenshot, or a PnL card, has neither, which is why neither proves anything alone. Five tells in a wallet screenshot lists what betrays a composed screen.
A disclosure, since this is our subject: we make a crypto wallet app simulator for skits, explainers and demos. Every screen it draws is a mockup, and our terms of use forbid presenting one as a real balance or proof of funds.
Where the words came from: a dated history
Many glossaries guess at dates. This one gives a date only when a source does, and says what the date stands for: a first documented use, a launch or a write-up. A missing word means no reliable date turned up.
- 18 December 2013, HODL. A Bitcointalk post titled "I AM HODLING" during a price drop (CoinDesk).
- 7 March 2018, funds are SAFU. During unplanned Binance maintenance its chief executive tweets that funds are safe, and a viral video turns it into "SAFU" (CoinMarketCap Academy).
- 2018, wassie. Born in the bear market of that year (CoinDesk).
- 6 January 2019, jeet. The earliest 4chan /biz/ thread documented by Know Your Meme.
- 11 July 2020, midcurve. The three-figure bell curve goes viral on Twitter (Know Your Meme).
- January 2024, bonded and graduated. Tokens begin launching on Pump.fun, priced along a bonding curve until they graduate (crypto.news).
- March 2024, jeet again. Traders object in public to the word because of its link to an ethnic slur (Know Your Meme).
- 28 August 2024, cabal. Decrypt describes the word as common in crypto for insiders who work together 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 and migrated. Pump.fun opens PumpSwap, its own exchange, and tokens that finish their curve move there (The Block).
Larp is only one entry here, and what larp means in crypto gives it a full walk-through.
Where the facts come from
- CoinMarketCap Academy: bag, crypto slang you need to learn (2022) and SAFU (2022)
- Binance Academy entry on bags (consulted 1 November 2026)
- TechCrunch on Discord and crypto wallets (2021) and NME on Discord backing off (2021)
- CoinDesk: the WEN token airdrop (2024) and midwits, wassies and HODLers (2022)
- CertiK on honeypot scams (2024), OpenZeppelin's Ownable documentation (2026) and Tokenomist on token generation events (2026)
- Decrypt's 2022 slang guide, its 2024 piece on a memecoin airdrop to influencers and its 2025 piece on a trader who created 17,000 coins
- crypto.news: the trenches and how bonding curves and rug pulls work (2026)
- The Block on PumpSwap (2025) and Arthur Hayes, PvP (2024)
- Know Your Meme: jeet (2024) and the IQ bell curve (2020)
Questions
What is CT in crypto?
CT is short for Crypto Twitter, the crowd of traders, developers and commentators who talk crypto on X. The name outlived the platform's rebrand. CT slang is the vocabulary that crowd built, from gm and WAGMI to newer memecoin words such as bundled and bonded.
What is a midcurve take?
It borrows from the IQ bell curve meme, where the far left and far right of the curve land on the same simple answer and the middle overthinks. A midcurve take is one that is overbuilt: many indicators, lots of theory, a result no better than holding. It is a mild jab, and people often aim it at themselves.
What does it mean to larp on CT?
To larp is to pretend, for example to show a portfolio, a profit or inside access you do not have. The word comes from live-action role-play. On CT it is an accusation, and the standard reply is a demand for something checkable, such as an address or a transaction hash instead of a screenshot.
Is jeet an acceptable word?
Many traders avoid it. Know Your Meme and Wiktionary trace it to a shortened ethnic slur aimed at Indian people, and traders argued about it in public in March 2024. Early seller or panic seller means the same without the baggage.
What does it mean when a memecoin bonds?
On a launchpad that prices new tokens along a bonding curve, a token bonds (graduates, migrates) once the curve is filled and trading moves to a regular exchange pool. According to crypto.news, fewer than two percent of Pump.fun tokens get there, so bonding is a milestone and not a seal of approval.
What is TGE?
Token generation event: the moment a project's token is minted on-chain and first handed out. On CT it works as a calendar date, because points convert, airdrops open and vesting clocks start from it. Pre-TGE is everything before that day.
What exactly is a honeypot?
A scam token that lets you buy and blocks you from selling. The contract traps most holders through a blacklist, a sell tax close to 100%, a minimum nobody can meet or a frozen account, so the chart climbs until the creator cashes out.
What does wen moon mean?
It is a teasing question, "when moon", aimed at anyone who expects a quick, huge rally. It belongs to a family with wen Lambo and wen token and predicts nothing. The WEN token is a separate asset named after the joke.
Is probably something a real phrase?
Yes, as the plain version of probably nothing: the poster says outright that something is happening. Decrypt lists the pair together. It is rarer because the pleasure of the original lies in the fake shrug.
What does CT mean in a text message?
In a crypto chat it nearly always means Crypto Twitter. Elsewhere those two letters can stand for other things, so look at who sent it and what the conversation is about.