Market Terms FAQ

ATH stands for all-time high, the highest price an asset has ever reached. It's a historical marker tracked from when data for that coin begins, and it says nothing about future direction — it simply records the peak the price has hit so far.

ATL stands for all-time low, the lowest price an asset has ever traded at since data began. Like ATH, it's just a historical reference point and carries no prediction about where the price goes next.

Market cap is an asset's price multiplied by its circulating supply, giving the total value of all coins in circulation. It's the standard way to compare coin sizes, since a low per-coin price is meaningless without knowing how many coins exist.

FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt — negative information or sentiment, sometimes spread deliberately, that pushes prices down. The term is often used to dismiss criticism, so it's worth judging whether a claim is genuine risk or just noise.

FOMO stands for fear of missing out, the urge to buy because a price is rising fast and you don't want to miss gains. It often leads to buying near tops, which is why disciplined traders treat FOMO as a warning rather than a signal.

HODL began as a typo for hold and became slang for keeping a position through volatility instead of trading in and out. It reflects a long-term mindset and is community shorthand rather than a formal strategy.

DYOR stands for do your own research, a reminder that no post, chart, or tool should replace checking facts yourself before acting. It exists because crypto is full of hype and scams, so responsibility ultimately rests with each person.

A whale is a wallet or entity holding enough of a coin that its trades can move the market alone. There's no fixed threshold — what counts as a whale depends on how liquid the specific coin is.

Liquidity is how easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price much. A liquid market has plenty of orders near the current price, while a thin one can swing sharply on even a modest trade.

Slippage is the gap between the price you expected and the price your trade actually filled at. It grows with large orders and thin liquidity, and exchanges often let you set a maximum tolerance to cancel a trade if it's exceeded.

Volatility measures how sharply and quickly a price moves up or down. Crypto is far more volatile than stocks or bonds, with big daily swings being common, meaning both potential gains and losses are unusually large.

A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices and optimism where buyers dominate and most assets trend upward. Crypto bull markets can be intense but are usually followed by sharp corrections.

A bear market is a prolonged period of falling prices and negative sentiment where selling dominates. Crypto bear markets can last months or years, often weeding out weaker projects while stronger ones consolidate.

A pump is a rapid rise in a coin's price, often driven by hype or coordinated buying rather than fundamentals. Pumps can reverse just as fast, especially in low-liquidity coins, trapping those who buy near the top.

A dump is a rapid, heavy sell-off that drives a coin's price down sharply. It can follow a pump, be triggered by bad news, or come from a large holder exiting, and it often accelerates as others panic-sell.

A dead cat bounce is a brief price recovery during an overall downtrend that fools some into thinking the bottom is in, before the decline resumes. The name reflects that even a falling market can bounce temporarily without truly reversing.

'To the moon' is slang for expecting a coin's price to rise dramatically. A moonshot is a speculative bet on such a rise. Both are optimistic hype phrases, not analysis, and the vast majority of moonshot bets don't pan out.

Rekt is slang for suffering heavy losses, especially from a leveraged trade being liquidated or a bad bet collapsing. It's a blunt reminder of how quickly and severely crypto positions can go wrong.

A bagholder is someone left holding a coin that has lost most of its value, often after buying near a top and refusing to sell. The term captures the risk of holding onto a failing asset hoping it recovers.

To shill is to aggressively promote a coin, usually for personal gain, without disclosing bias. Shilling is common on social media, so promotional enthusiasm should be treated with skepticism rather than taken as objective analysis.

A maxi, short for maximalist, is a fervent supporter of one coin, most often Bitcoin, who dismisses alternatives. The label describes a strongly biased stance, so a maxi's take is enthusiasm, not neutral assessment.

TVL, or total value locked, is the dollar value of assets deposited in a protocol, used as a rough gauge of how much it's used. High TVL shows scale, not safety, since a large protocol can still be exploited.

APR, or annual percentage rate, is the yearly interest or return without compounding. In crypto it's used for lending and staking yields, and comparing it with APY matters since APY includes compounding and is usually higher.

APY, or annual percentage yield, is the yearly return including compounding, so it's higher than APR for the same base rate. Advertised crypto APYs can be large but often rely on volatile reward tokens whose value can fall fast.

A gas fee is the payment to a blockchain network to process a transaction, going to those who secure it. Fees rise when the network is busy, since users compete for limited block space, and complex operations cost more than simple transfers.

A stablecoin is a token designed to hold a steady value, almost always pegged to a currency like the US dollar. Traders use them to hold value or move between positions without cashing out to a bank.

A satoshi is the smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to one hundred-millionth of a coin. It lets people transact in tiny fractions, since a whole bitcoin is too valuable for small everyday payments.

Gwei is a small unit of Ether used to price Ethereum gas fees, equal to one-billionth of an ETH. Because gas costs are tiny fractions of a coin, quoting them in gwei is far more practical than in whole ETH.

A candlestick shows an asset's open, close, high, and low for a period using a body and wicks. Green or hollow candles usually mean the price rose, red or filled ones that it fell, making trends easy to read.

Support is a price level where buying has historically been strong enough to halt declines. Traders watch it because prices often react there, though support can break when selling momentum is strong enough.

Resistance is a price level where selling has historically capped advances. Prices often stall there, but resistance can break on strong buying, and once broken it may flip to act as support.

A correction is a moderate price decline, often cited as around 10% or more, within a larger uptrend. Corrections are normal, shaking out weak positions, and telling one apart from a full reversal is a key challenge.

A breakout is when price moves decisively past a support or resistance level, often signaling a new move. Traders look for volume to confirm it, since low-volume breakouts frequently fail and reverse.

Accumulation is a phase where buyers quietly build positions, often after a downtrend, typically shown by sideways price on steady demand. It's usually only clear in hindsight once an uptrend follows.

Distribution is a phase where holders gradually sell into strength, often near a top, shown by sideways price after a big run. Like accumulation, it's typically only obvious once the following downtrend begins.

The spot price is an asset's current market price for immediate purchase or sale. It's the baseline reference that derivatives like futures are measured against, and it reflects real-time supply and demand.

A trading pair is the two assets being exchanged, like BTC/USDT, with the second showing what the price is denominated in. So BTC/USDT displays Bitcoin's price measured in Tether.

A degen, short for degenerate, is slang for a trader who takes wild, high-risk bets, especially on speculative new tokens. The term is often worn as a badge of honor but describes genuinely risky behavior likely to end in losses.

Diamond hands describes holding through volatility without selling, while paper hands describes selling quickly at the first sign of trouble. Both are slang for trading temperament rather than advice, since holding and selling each carry risk.

An airdrop farmer uses protocols specifically to qualify for potential future token airdrops. It's a popular strategy, but rewards aren't guaranteed, and chasing airdrops can expose users to gas costs, scams, and wasted effort.

Wen is intentional misspelling of when, used jokingly in crypto communities to ask about timing, as in 'wen moon' or 'wen airdrop.' It's playful slang, and demands for 'wen' are more meme than genuine information.

A rug, short for rug pull, is when a project's creators take investors' money and abandon it, leaving holders unable to sell. It's one of crypto's most common scams, so red flags like anonymous teams and unlocked liquidity matter.

For fuller explanations of market structure terms like liquidity, slippage, TVL, and tokenomics, see the BubbleLayer glossary at the market terms glossary, which covers the most important concepts in more depth.