The ABCs of NFTs: 150+ Terms and Phrases For Noobs

Ξdgar
18 min readDec 5, 2021

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NFT and Crypto Twitter can be intimidating for people trying to learn. Between all the GM’s and WAGMI’s, trying to keep up with conversations is overwhelming. The purpose of this dictionary is to desmitify these terms so that people don’t feel out of place when they embark on their journey into Web3.0.

0. Alpha (noun)
Insider information regarding the value of digital assets like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

1. AB — ArtBlocks (noun)
An Ethereum-based NFT platform “focused on genuinely programmable on demand generative” art. It is considered the most important generative art platform.

2. AFAIK
As Far As I Know

3. Airdrop (noun, verb)
A marketing tactic in which NFT or Crypto projects send assets, usually for free, to people’s wallets. They’re primarily used to increase awareness and adoption. Airdrops are sometimes used to scam people. Scammers load a person’s wallet with fake coins in hopes of luring them to their website where they empty any wallet that gets connected.

4. Altcoin/Alts (noun)
Used to refer to any coin in cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin.

5. Shitcoin (noun)
Used by Bitcoin Maximalist to refer to an Altcoin

6. AMA (noun)
Ask Me Anything.

7A. Ape (noun)
someone who is heavily invested in stocks, NFTs, or Crypto. The origin of the term is unknown. Some liken it to Planet of the Apes while others draw on the juxtaposition between an Ape’s low IQ and the idea that you have to be smart to be successful in the market.

7B. Aped/Ape Into (verb)
To buy into a cryptocurrency or NFT without doing proper research because you’re afraid to miss out. Usually happens after an NFT launch when FOMO is high.

8. FOMO (noun, verb)
Fear of missing out.

9. Due Diligence (DD) (noun)
The process of doing your own research on an asset. It is an essential part of being a good investor.

10. Assets (noun)
Used to refer to anything that can be stored in a digital format like JPEGs, videos, and music tracks. NFTs are considered digital assets because they are stored digitally.

11. ATH (noun)
The highest prices an NFT or Cryptocurrency has ever had.

12. Bag Holder (noun)
An investor who holds crypto or keeps an NFT as it drops in value with the incorrect belief that it will turn around. These investors typically lose all of their money in the process aka they were left “holding the bag.”

13. BAYC — Bored Ape Yacht Club (noun)

A collection of 10,000 ape profile pictures (PFPs).

“A limited NFT collection where the token itself doubles as your membership to a swamp club for apes. Each Bored Ape is unique and programmatically generated from over 170 possible traits, including expression, headwear, clothing, and more. All apes are dope, but some are rarer than others.”

The project is considered to be one of the most successful with an eco-system valued at over a Billion dollars. Stars such as Jimmy Fallon and NBA All-Star Steph Curry are known to be members of BAYC.

On August 11, 2021, Bored Ape Yacht Club #3749 was sold for 400 ETH on OpenSea.

14. Bear (noun)
An investor who believes the value of a stock or asset is headed downward.

15. Bear Market (noun)
When a market (Crypto, Stocks, NFTs) declines in value over a period of time.

16. Bitcoin Maximalist (noun)
Someone who is “all in” on Bitcoin and thinks everything else is a shitcoin.

17. Blockchain (noun)
A blockchain is a digital ledger that keeps track of transactions. It is distributed, decentralized, and nearly impossible to manipulate.

18. Boomer (noun)
Short for baby boomer — a person born between 1946 and 1964. In the context of crypto, a boomer is someone over a certain age who holds a contrarian position on crypto. Common response to their nonsense remarks includes: Okay Boomer.

19. BTC (noun)
Bitcoin’s ticker symbol on a currency exchanged. Usually written as $BTC.

20. BTD (verb)
Buy The Dip. Cryptocurrencies have periods of gains followed by temporary setbacks when their value drops.

21. Bull (noun)
An investor who believes the marketing is going to the moon.

22. Bull market (noun)
A period of time when asset prices are rising.

23. Buying on secondary (verb)
When you buy an asset on the secondary market. People who miss out on the initial release of an NFT project can still buy the asset on a secondary market platform like OpenSea.

24. Coin (noun)
A cryptocurrency coin like ETH.

25. Crypto Wallet (noun)
“Crypto wallets keep your private keys — the passwords that give you access to your cryptocurrencies — safe and accessible, allowing you to send and receive cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. They come in many forms, from hardware wallets like Ledger (which looks like a USB stick) to mobile apps like Coinbase Wallet.”

26. Cold wallet (noun)
A place to store your cryptocurrency and NFTs offline for extra security. Your wallet’s private keys may be stored in a hardware wallet, or written on a piece of paper and stored in a safe place. If you lose your private keys, you can transfer the crypto to another wallet by using the recovery phrase.

27. COPE (verb)
Coping with the fact that you didn’t FOMO into something when the price was low.

28. Crypto exchange (noun)
A place to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrencies.

29. Cryptocurrency (noun)
Digital money. Cryptocurrencies are decentralized meaning they can’t be controlled by any one entity. Each blockchain has its own coin (i.e. Bitcoin blockchain has $BTC, Ethereum blockchain has $ETH, etc.).

30. Cryptography (noun)
The practice of using algorithms to convert plain text into secret keys that are hard to decipher. This is done to protect information from being accessed by anyone other than the person who it was intended for. It is the foundation of blockchain technology.

31. CryptoKitties (noun)
A blockchain game on the Ethereum network that allows players to purchase, collect, breed and sell virtual cats.The game nearly broke the ethereum network in 2017. It was developed by Dapper Labs.

32. CryptoPunk (noun)
An NFT collection on the ethereum blockchain that was launched in 2017 by Larva Labs (LL) Studio. THe project was inspired by “the London punk scenes, the cyberpunk movement and electronic music artists Daft Punk.” CryptoPunks are among the most valuable NFT PFPs with prices ranging from a the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

33. CT (noun)
Crypto Twitter aka the crypto community on twitter.

34A. DAO (noun)
An organization that is governed by its users. The weight of a user’s vote is proportionate to the percentage of a specific asset they own.

34B. Dapp (noun)
An open-source Decentralised application or a phone/web app that relies on blockchain technology.

35. DCA (noun)
Dollar Cost Averaging. Buying an asset over a period of time to limit the impact of market volatility. For example, if you buy ethereum all at once and its value plunges, you lose money. Buy, if you spread out your purchase and buy a little each month, you minimize the amount you can lose all at once.

36. Ded (noun)
Short for dead.

37. DeFi (noun)
Short for Decentralised Finance. DeFi refers to financial services rendered using blockchain technology. It removes the need for brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer traditional financial instruments.

38. Degen (noun, adjective)
Short for degenerate gambler. Refers to someone who yolos all their money into a risky investment with the hopes it’ll take off.

39. Hide your JPEGs or Delist (verb)
To delist an NFT you’re selling because the price of the collection is rising rapidly and you run the risk of selling it for less than it’s worth.

40. Derivative (noun)
A project or artwork that is derived from another project.

41. Diamond Hands (noun, adjective)
A bullish investor who holds onto a certain asset with no plans to sell it despite volatility.

42. Discord (noun)
Messaging platform that is heavily used by NFT communities.

43. DLT (noun)
Distributed Ledger Technology aka a blockchain.

44. Drop (noun, verb)
The release of a new NFT collection.

45. DYOR
Do Your Own Research. Similar to DD.

46. ETH or Ether (the coin) (noun)
The cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain.

47. ETH2.0 (noun)
The next version of the ethereum network. It will have improved security, scalability, and will substantially less energy.

48. Ethereum Network (noun)
The name of the blockchain platform that produces the Ether coin.

49. Exchange (noun)
A platform for buying and selling cryptocurrencies or NFTs such as Coinbase.

50. Farm (noun)
Large scale operations for mining cryptocurrencies. It looks like a warehouse full of computers.

51. FCFS (noun)
First Come First Serve. Used for NFT collections that are high in demand.

52. Fiat (noun)
Refers to a government tendered currencies like the USD or GBP.

53. Flex (verb)
To show off.

54. Flip (verb)
To quickly buy and sell crypto/NFTs for profit.

55. Floor (price) (noun)
The lowest asking price of an NFT in a collection.

56. FOMO (noun)
A feeling of anxiety that comes from the idea that one is missing out on an opportunity.

57. FOMO-In (verb)
Buying into an NFT project because you fear missing out on the next big thing.

58. FR
For real, For real? For real.

59. Fren (noun)
A derivative of “friend.”

60. FUD (noun)
Acronym of Fear Uncertainty Doubt. Used to describe negative information. Usually done to scare people.

61. FUDDER (noun)
Someone who spreads negative information usually about a competing project or coin.

62. Non-Fungible Token (noun)
A non-fungible token is a unique unit of data stored on a blockchain.

63. G (noun, adjective)
Gangster.

64. Gas (noun)
The fee you have to pay to process a transaction (i.e. mint an NFT, moving tokens from one wallet to another, etc.) on the blockchain. It rises and falls depending on the amount of demand on the network.

Etherscan

65. Generative Art (noun)
Algorithmically generated art.

66. GG (noun)
Good Game.

67. GM
Good Morning. The NFT Community is tightly-knit and this is something we say to each other.

68. WAGMI
We all gonna to make it — a mantra uttered by frens, apes, and degens. Also, WGMI, GMI.

69. GN
Good Night.

70. GWEI (noun)
Short for gigawei, or 1B wei. Wei, as the smallest unit of ether. It’s like what the cent is to the dollar and satoshi to bitcoin. Gas transactions are notes in GWEI.

71. Hashmask (noun)
Virtual artworks created by a globally-distributed team of 70 artists managed by Suum Cuique Labs. By holding the artwork, you accumulate the NCT token on a daily basis, which allows you to choose a name for your portrait on the Ethereum blockchain.

72. HODL (verb)
A misspelling of the word HOLD or an acronym for the phrase: “hold on for dear life.”

73. Hot wallet (noun)
A wallet that lives on the web and is susceptible to being hacked.

74. ICO (noun)
An Initial Coin Offering.

75. IDEK
I Don’t Even Know.

76. IPFS (noun)
Interplanetary File System, peer-to-peer file storage system using hashes to recall and preserve the integrity of the file

77. IRL (noun)
In Real Life. Used to describe the world outside of the internet.

79. It’s Money Laundering
Used to imply that crypto and NFTs are a form of money laundering. “Someone bought a picture of a rock for 150ETH? It’s money laundering.”

80. IYKYK
If You Know, You Know. Used to describe information that only a few are privy to.

81. JPEG/JPG (noun)
Describes an NFT that’s an image. It’s a way for the NFT community to reclaim the word that’s used as an insult by NFT haters. “Smoking weed, buying JPEGs.”

82. Key (noun)
The foundation of security in cryptocurrency. When you first buy crypto, you are given two keys — a public and private key. The public key is like an email address that others can use to send you assets. The private key is like a password that unlocks your crypto vault.

83. KMS (noun)
Kill Myself.

84. LarvaLabs (LL)
One of the most important players in crypto. LL are the creators of projects like the OG NFT, Cryptopunks, and Meebits.

85. Laser eyes
A twitter meme signalling support for Bitcoin.

86. LFG
Let’s F*cking Go! Used to express intense excitement for something.

87. Liquidity (noun)
The amount of crypto you have available for buying assets.

88. Looks Rare
Used ironically to describe something that looks valuable.

89. McDonalds (noun)
Inside joke and backup career plan in case the Not Gonna Make It (NGMI) scenario comes true.

90. Meatspace (noun)
Another term for the real world.

91. Memecoin (noun)
A cryptocurrency like Doge or Shib that became wildly popular after starting as a meme.

92. Metamask (noun)
Metamask is a third-party crypto-wallet that is popular among NFT traders.

93. Metaverse (noun)
Coined by writer Neal Stephenson in the 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash,” the metaverse is a virtual reality environment where people interact as avatars.

94. Miners (noun)
Contrary to popular belief, miners are not people. They are high-powered computers used to verify data blocks and validate transactions on the blockchain.

95. Mining (verb)
The process of validating a transaction on the blockchain. In more technical terms: “mining is the process by which new coins are entered into circulation. Mining is a lottery to create new blocks in the Bitcoin blockchain which track and verify all transactions performed on the decentralized network. In exchange for handling these transactions, cryptocurrency is rewarded in a form of a lottery system that runs every 10 minutes.”

96. Minting (verb)
The process of publishing a digital work on the blockchain for the first time to validate it.

97. MOAR
A misspelling of “More.”

98. Moon
When a cryptocurrency’s price spikes and the chart looks like it’s going to the moon!

99. Never trust, always verify
Warning call to people in crypto and NFTs. Don’t trust anything you see or read. Do your own research!

100. NFA
Not Financial Advice. Closely related to DYOR (do your own research). It suggests you should never take someone else’s words as advice.

101. NFT (noun)
Non-fungible token — a digital asset with a unique identifier.

102. NFT Exchange (noun)
A place to buy and sell NFTs like OpenSea, SuperRare, HeN, etc.

103. NFT Whale (noun)
A word used to describe market manipulators. They come into a market, buy a majority of the available positions to manipulate price.

104. NGMI
Not Going to Make It.

105. NMP
Acronym for “Not My Problem”.

106. Nocoiner (noun)
People who don’t hold crypto.

107. Non-Fungible (noun)
Something that is unique and can’t be replaced.

108. Noob (noun, adjective)
Name used to refer to people who are new to crypto, Web3, NFTs.

109. Normie (noun, verb)
Someone with a respectable 9–5 who lives in the suburbs. Doesn’t dabble in the world of crypto.

110. NSFW (noun)
Not Suitable For Work.

111. OpenSea (noun)
The OG of NFT exchanges. This is where most of the top projects are currently hosted.

112. Paper Hands (noun, adjective)
Used to describe someone who sells their position at the first sign of a downturn.

113. PFP (noun)
Profile Pictures. This includes projects like BAYC and Crypto Punks.

114. POAP NFT (noun)
Proof of Attendance Protocol NFT. Given out at events to indicate that you attended.

115. Position (noun)
The amount of an asset or coin that is owned (or sold short) by an individual

116. Probably Nothing
A sarcastic phrase used to downplay something big. Implies that it’s probably SOMETHING.

117. Pump & Dump (noun)
A manipulative scheme driven by fake hype and used by individuals to boost the price of a coin or asset so that they can cash out when it hits a top price leaving others holding the bag.

118. Recovery Phrase (noun)
A 12-word phrase used to recover your crypto wallet. It is used as a backup to your wallet’s private key. Anyone who has your recovery phrase can access your wallet.

119. Rekt (verb, adjective)
Short for wrecked. When an investment goes wrong and you lose a ton of money. Seen as a rite of passage in some communities.

120. Right-Click Save
The “gotcha” move from someone who lacks a clear understanding of NFTs. It implies that buying NFTs is stupid because you can just “Right-Click Save”

121. RN
Right Now.

122. Roadmap (noun)
The set of tactics, events, and activities used by NFT founders to outline the vision of their project. It answers the following questions: Where are we? Where are we going? How are we going to get there?

123. Rug/Rugged
To have the rug pulled out from under you. When founders of a project dump the project and take off with all the money, it is said that you were “rugged.”

124. Satoshi Nakamoto (noun)
The anonymous inventor and creator of the Bitcoin whitepaper. The identity of Satoshi is unknown.

125. Seems legit
Used to refer to a project with potential. It is also used ironically to describe a seemingly ridiculous idea.

126. Seems rare
A Common response when someone asks your opinion about an NFT you’ve never heard about.

127. Ser (noun)
An alternative spelling for “Sir.” Used in the NFT community to greet others.

128. Shill Thread (noun)
A thread of people showing off NFTs people are selling.

129. Shill/Shilling (noun, verb)
To encourage others to invest in a specific project aka NFT Marketing.

130. Simp/Simping (noun, verb)
When an NFT artist tries wayyy too hard to impress a whale. In more general terms, when you try too hard to impress someone.

131. Smart Contract (noun)
A conditional piece of code that executes on the blockchain without human intervention. They usually come in the form of “IF/THEN” statements.

132. SMFH/SMDH
Shake My F*cking/Damn Head.

133. Stablecoin (noun)
A cryptocurrency that is pegged to a government-backed currency like the US Dollar (i.e. Tether and USDC).

134. Satoshis/Sats (noun)
A fraction of a Bitcoin. Like a penny to a dollar. Equal to 0.00000001 of a Bitcoin.

135. Stacking Sats (verb)
Buying one whole bitcoin is pricey. So people buy fractions of the coin (Sats). Stacking Sats means to keep adding to your position in Bitcoin.

136. Szn (noun)
An alternate spelling of “season.” Used to describe a market cycle.

137. This is the way (noun)
Phrase used to describe acceptable behavior in the Crypto/NFT community.

138A. Tokenomics (noun)
Term used to describe the economics of cryptocurrencies.

138B. Token (noun)
A token is a digital asset created on the blockchain. Tokens usually represent assets or are used to interact with Dapps.

139. Uniswap (noun)
Popular decentralized crypto exchange that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It is also a decentralized finance protocol that is used to exchange cryptocurrencies.

140. Wallet (noun)
A place to store your digital assets and currencies. Hot wallets live on the internet while cold wallets live offline in a hardware wallet. Hot wallets are more susceptible to getting hacked.

141. Web1.0 (noun)
The Web from around 1990 to 2005. Also known as the read-only web.

142. Web2.0 (noun)
The internet from 2005 to now. Also known as the read-write web, which gave way to social media platforms like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

143. Web 3.0 (noun)
Represents the new iteration of the internet. Also known as the decentralized web.

144. Wen
Another word for “when.”

145. Wen Moon
Refers to the price of an NFT or cryptocurrency. When is this asset going to the moon.

146. Whitepaper (noun)
An essay or paper that gives investors technical info about a certain concept.

147. wETH (noun)
A token that holds the same value as ETH. When you buy NFTs on OpenSea, you use ETH but when you want to place a bid on an NFT, you use wETH.

148. YOLO (verb)
You Only Live Once. Used when making a risky trade.

149. 1:1 Art (noun)
A unique piece of art.

150. 1/1 of X (noun)

A piece of art that is both unique but part of a larger collection. Bad Bunnies are 1/1 of 5,500. Generative Art and PFP Projects fall under this category.

151. FEW

Short for “few understand.”

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Ξdgar
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Demystifying the business of Web3.0 & NFTs.