This is an updated version from my post of march. Which includes new abbreviations from the comment section and new words that popped up since then.

As we welcome newcomers everyday to this sub it’s nice to have a all you need to know abbreviations guide to get them started. When i first started reading up things (because DYOR) i came across terms i’ve never heard of. So here are some of the most common abbreviations you will come across while doing research about cryptos. In this list you can also find the top 25 crypto as of 12 august 2021 wich are explained in mostly 2 – 4 sentences. I’ve taken some insparation from this post by u/Layneeeee as a guideline for some of the top 25 tokens. But also included some links to the white papers of them.

I hope this list can help new people coming in and maybe help some people that are just lost in all the jargon people use. I’ve put sections in the list to also help make the list easier to read. Maybe i missed some, so if anyone want anything added, comment and i will update it.

Top 25 cryptocurrencies (by marketcap) explained in 2-4 senctences:

Bitcoin (BTC): The original cryptocurrency. According to the creator (or creators?) Satoshi Nakamoto was created to allow “online payments to be sent directly from one party to another without going through a financial institution.”
Ethereum (ETH): Ethereum is the wonder child of crypto, acts as an infrastructure for most decentralized applications. Introduces smart contracts, which are like programs with specific procedures that, once deployed, no one can change.
Binance Coin (BNB): Coin associated with the Binance exchange, valuable since it is the most popular centralized exchange. Can be used to pay transaction fees on Binance.
Tether (USDT): A centralized stablecoin tied to the dollar
Cardano (ADA): Another blockchain trying to improve scalability, interoperability, and sustainability of cryptocurrencies. Those who hold the cryptocurrency have the right to vote on any proposed changes in the software.
Ripple (XRP): Centralized coin, is the native cryptocurrency for products developed by Ripple Labs. Its products are used for payment settlement, asset exchange, and remittance systems
Dogecoin (DOGE): Wow, such high ranking! More a meme coin, just for fun. Supply is to infinity and beyond, cause they are minting 14.000.000 tokens a day
USD Coin (USDC): Another centralized stablecoin tied to the dollar, like USDT.
Polkadot (DOT): Open-source protocol aimed at connecting all different blockchains and allowing them to work together, allowing transfers of any data.
Uniswap (UNI): A DeFi ,but this time it’s an exchange like Binance and the best part is that it’s decentralized.
Binance USD (BUSD): Is a new USD-denominated stablecoin approved by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) that will be launched in partnership with Paxos and Binance.
Solana (SOL): Is a web-scale blockchain that provides fast, secure, scalable, decentralized apps and marketplaces. The system currently supports 50,000 TPS (Transactions per second) and 400ms Block Times.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH): A fork of Bitcoin (a copy with differences that includes smaller fees and increases scalabillity).
Chainlink (LINK): The main idea is to LINK smart contracts with real-world data, verifying that this data is correct.
Litecoin (LTC): Bitcoin’s cousin, with faster transactions and lower fees.
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC): It’s just bitcoin wrapped in ethereum to be used in DeFi applications.
Internet Computer (ICP): It’s a cryptocurrency/digital token that allows users to create apps, websites and other web-based services.
Polygon (MATIC): A sidechain connecting to a blockchain and helps it perform better. Transactions process much more quickly and have lower fees. Polygon has been developed for use with the Ethereum blockchain, but that doesn’t mean it’s limited to Ethereum.
Ethereum Classic (ETC): Ethereum Classic, like Ethereum, supports smart contracts and decentralized applications (dapps). It originated from a contentious hard fork of the ethereum blockchain that took place in 2016. It’s old nodes that don’t wanna update their software.

Stellar (XLM): Talking about currencies, XLM is one of the coins aiming to do just that, with fast processing times and low fees.
VeChain (VET): A blockchain focusing on business use-cases more than on technology, bringing this technology to the masses without them even knowing they’re using it.
THETA (THETA): Decentralized video delivery network (peer-to-peer streaming). The token performs various governance tasks within the network.
Terra (LUNA): Aiming to support a global payment network, it tries to create a decentralized stablecoin with an elastic money supply, enabled by stable mining incentives. Its related stablecoin is TerraUSD
Filecoin (FIL): Filecoin is a peer-to-peer network that stores files, with built-in economic incentives to ensure files are stored reliably over time.
TRON (TRX): Have you seen Silicon Valley when they try to create a decentralized internet? Yeah, Tron’s founder is Richard Hendricks. It is also one of the most popular blockchain to build decentralized applications on.

Bonus: coins that fell out of the top 25 as of 8 march 2021:

Was at place 16 now 62: NEM (XEM): instead of controlling just money, you can manage stock ownership, contracts, medical records, and stuff like that Was at place 17 now 27: Aave (AAVE): take a bank and make it decentralized, where the liquidity comes from the users, and they earn fees from borrows. This is Aave. Was at place 19 now 39: Cosmos (ATOM): several independent blockchains trying to create an “internet of blockchains.” Was at place 21 now 35: Crypto.com Coin (CRO): the token of Crypto.com public blockchain that tries to enable transactions worldwide between people and businesses Was at place 22 now 28: Monero (XMR): privacy token that doesn’t share the sending/recieving end of the transfer. Was at place 25 now 30: EOS (EOS): another blockchain aimed at being highly scalable for commercial use. It aims to make it as straightforward as possible for programmers to embrace blockchain technology.

Als with anything in crypto it’s DYOR. When a coin is in the top 25 it doesn’t mean it will stay there forever. Anything can happen. Also all the whitepapers are linked to the coin. So it’s easy to to do your own research that way.

Abbreviations for Regulatory Commissions:

CFTC – Commodity Futures Trading Commission DOJ – Department of Justice FDIC – Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation FTC – Federal Trade Commission SEC – Securities and Exchange Commission

Like standard currency, cryptocurrency is regulated by various bodies and commissions. These organizations create regulations to avoid fraud and illegal schemes (for the most part).

​

Conversational Cryptocurrency abbreviations/words:

AMA – Ask Me Anything BEAR MARKET – When everything is down for a long time and the sentiment changed from rainbows and unicorns to a full out depresion BTD or BTFD – Buy The Dip or Buy the F****** Dip BUIDL – “Build” (purposeful misspelling for ironic meaning)
CT – Crypto Twitter DIAMOND HANDS – People that aren’t selling even at a huge lost or a bear market, those are the people with diamond hands. DYOR – Do Your Own Research ELI5 – Explain It Like I’m 5 FOMO – Fear of Missing Out (Bitcoin is rising and instead of buying when it’s low, people are investing because maybe it goes even higher!)
FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt FUDster – A person who spreads Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt HODL – Hold On for Dear Life (purposeful misspelling of “HOLD”)
JOMO – Joy of Missing Out KYC – Know Your Customer Lambo – Lamborghini (cryptocurrency term for getting rich)
OCO – One Cancels the Other REKT – “Wrecked” (meaning major losses)
TLT – Think Long Term TOR – The Onion Router (one who sends anonymous data)

Because every online community has their own slang and jargon, we are no different. Read up on cryptocurrency slang that you might need when conversing with others.

​

Financial abbreviations:

ALT or Altcoin – Alternative Cryptocurrency (cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin)
AML – Anti-Money Laundering ATH – All-Time High ATL – All-Time Low CEX – Centralized Exchange CMC – Coinmarketcap DAICO – Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offering DCA – Dollar Cost Averaging (is a strategy where an investor invests a total sum of money in small increments over time instead of all at once. The goal is to take advantage of market downturns without risking too much capital at any given time)
DeFi – Decentralized Finance (is a blockchain-based form of finance that does not rely on central financial intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks to offer traditional financial instruments, and instead utilizes smart contracts on blockchains)
DEX – Decentralized Exchange (are a type of cryptocurrency exchange which allows for direct consumer to consumer cryptocurrency transactions to take place online securely and without the need for an intermediary)
DLT – Distributed Ledger Technology ERC-20 – Token standard for Ethereum ERC-721 – Token standard for NFT (non-fungible tokens)
ETF – Exchange-Traded Fund ETP –s Exchange-Traded Product FIAT – Conventional government-issued currency (e.g. US Dollar, Euro)
IBO – Initial Bounty Offering ICO – Initial Coin Offering (like a pre sale for cryptocurrency)
IEO – Initial Exchange Offering (it’s a new form of ICO. This time exchanges are vetting the blockchain projects, white paper and crowdfunding drive. All of this is listed on the exchange)
ITO – Initial Token Offering mBTC – Millibitcoin (0.001 BTC)
MCAP – Market Capitalization OTC – Over the Counter PnD – Pump-and-Dump scheme SATS – Satoshis (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC)
STAKING – Staking cryptocurrencies is a process that involves buying and setting aside a certain amount of tokens to become an active validating node for the network. By simply holding these coins, the buyer becomes an important piece in the network’s security infrastructure and is compensated accordingly. STO – Securities Token Offering TPS – Transactions Per Second Tx – Transaction TxID – Transaction Identification uBTC – MicroBitcoin (0.000001 BTC) UTXO – Unspent Transaction Outputs (when a transaction is completed, any unspent outputs are deposited back into a database as inputs which can be used at a later date for a new transaction)
UXTO – Unspent Transaction

The ultimate objective os using cryptocurrency is to make money (we mostly say that we’re in it for the technology). Most of the above abbreviations are combined slang from economic markets.

​

Technical abbreviations:

2FA – Two Factor Authentication Addy – Address API – Application Programming Interface ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuit Bech32 – Bitcoin address format (also known as bc1 addresses)
BFA – Brute Force Attack BFT – Byzantine Fault Tolerance CPU – Central Processing Unit ( the CPU in a computer takes instructions from a program or application and performs a calculation, setting binaire units into readable information for humans)
DAG – Directed Acyclic Graph DAPP or dApp – Decentralized Application DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service (is an malicious attempt to disrupt the normal traffic of a targeted server, service or network by overwhelming the target or its surrounding infrastructure with a flood of Internet traffic)
DEVCON – Developers Conference GPU – Graphical Processing Unit (is a specialized electronic circuit designed to rapidly manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device)
IPFS – Interplanetary Files System Multi-sig – Multi-Signature NFT – non-fungible token (is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain, that certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio, and other types of digital files)
NONCE – Number Used Only Once PKI – Public Key Infrastructure SHA-256 – Secure Hash Acronym (256-bit) WWDC – Worldwide Developers Conference

Cybersecurity is a major element of using your cryptocurrency the best you can. Above are the most used abbreviations that developers and users can use.

​

Blockchain and network Abbreviations:

B2B – Business to Business B2C – Business to Consumer BIP – Bitcoin Improvement Proposal BTM – Automatic Teller Machine for Bitcoin DAO – Decentralized Autonomous Organization DPoS – Delegated Proof of Stake EEA – Enterprise Ethereum Alliance EIP – Ethereum Improvement Proposal ERC – Ethereum Request for Comments EVM – Ethereum Virtual Machine FA – Fundamental Analysis Fork – Different parties need to use common rules to maintain the history of the blockchain. When parties are not in agremeent they can make alternative chains with adjustments. Fork (hard) – A hard fork is when nodes of the newest version of a blockchain no longer accept the older version(s) of the blockchain; which creates a permanent divergence from the previous version of the blockchain. LN – Lightning Network MACD – Moving Average Convergence Divergence MoE – Medium of Exchange P2P – Peer to Peer PoA – Proof of Authority PoB – Proof of Burn PoD – Proof of Developer PoS – Proof of Stake PoW – Proof of Work SC – Smart Contract SegWit – Segregated Witness SoV – Store of value TA – Technical Analysis or Trend Analysis UoA – Unit of Account UTC – Coordinated Universal Time WP – Whitepaper (the pre porposal of a coin, you can read what the builder of a cryptocurrency want with their idea)
YTD – Year to Date

Above are the most commonly used terms when referring to blockchains or trading networks.