We break down formal NFT terms from A to Z. Plus, we cover NFT slang, abbreviations, intentional misspellings and Twitter terminology to give you a full look at the language around NFTs.
Term
Definition
1:1 Art
A unique NFT art piece that only exists in one edition.
10k project
An NFT collection of approximately 10,000 avatars, which was arguably pioneered by the famous CryptoPunks collection. This term is also commonly used to refer to similar avatar projects instead of the actual number of NFTs in the collection.
Airdrop
New NFTs or cryptocurrencies that are automatically sent to your wallet for free. This is a common practice in the crypto space to attract and reward early project adopters.
Alpha
Having access to important insider information. For example, one may say “I work at Opensea, so I have Alpha on the new artists that we’re partnering with next month”
Ape-ing (into something)
When you ‘ape into’ something, it means that you’re buying something in an irresponsible manner and typically out of “FOMO”, and/or without doing your due diligence.
Asset
Another way to refer to a digital collectible or token.
Avatar project
Basically the same as a 10k project. Refers to a collection that consists of a few thousand NFT ‘avatars’ such as CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cool Cats.
Bearish
When you believe that a market or asset is heading towards a downward trajectory. For example, “I’m feeling pretty bearish about the P2E gaming space right now.”
Bitcoin
The most well-known cryptocurrency.
Blockchain
Think of it as an open spreadsheet that everyone in the crypto world has access to, and it records any changes or transactions. It’s where users can verify ownership.
Blue chip
Well-known projects or tokens with the most stability. An example of a blue chip NFT project is CryptoPunks by Larva Labs.
Bot
An automated software or script built to perform specific actions. Bots are commonly used to automate trade executions, initiate identity verification, snipe cheap NFTs once they’re listed, etc.
Bridge
A connection that allows the transfer of tokens and/or arbitrary data from one chain to another for a fee.
BSC
Short for “Binance Smart Chain”.
BTC
The abbreviation for Bitcoin.
Bullish
The exact opposite of bearish. This term is used when traders, investors and community members expect an appreciation of a token or asset’s value in the near future.
Burn / Burning
Refers to the complete destruction of an NFT to get rid of it. You can “burn” an NFT by sending it to the NFT contract address so that it’ll be destroyed and no longer be transferrable.
Collectible
Something that’s deemed to have value or rarity, such as limited edition LEGOs or sneakers.
Community Designated Sellers (CDS)
People who set up wallet addresses with specific purposes and fees for others looking to sell their assets.
Crypto
Short for cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency
Type of digital currency (e.g. Bitcoin, Ethereum etc) that uses cryptography to secure financial transactions and control the origination of new coins.
Crypto Twitter (CT)
Subculture of developers, tech founders, economists, influencers and speculators that frequently tweet about cryptocurrency, blockchain, decentralization and crypto scams.
Decentralized apps (dApps)
Apps, or crypto projects, that are built to run on decentralized networks such as Ethereum, BSC and Solana.
Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO)
DAOs are member-owned communities without centralized leadership, which means that they are not governed by one single person or entity. Instead, the rules and governance are coded in smart contracts on the blockchain and changes can only be made through voting by the members of the DAO.
DEX
Decentralized exchanges (DEX) allow for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions rather than going through a third party.
DeFi
An acronym for decentralized finance.
Degen
Short for “degenerate”, usually refers to people who often make risky bets. In the crypto space, it usually refers to people who invest in digital assets like NFTs by “ape-ing” in and without doing due diligence.
Delist
Cancelling the listing of an NFT for sale from an open market.
Derivative
Projects derived from the original project, first popularized with a wide variety of “alternative” punks collections.
Devs
Short for “developers.”
Diamond hands
Refers to people who hold on to an asset despite price volatility, negative news, poor market sentiment and FUD.
Discord
A group-chatting platform originally built for gamers but has since evolved into a platform for all kinds of communities, especially NFT projects.
Doxxed / Doxed
When the identity of an NFT team member, dev or creator is public, known or verifiable. In the NFT market, when a NFT team is doxed it’s usually sign of confidence and transparency for NFT collectors to ensure they won’t be scammed by an anonymous creator.
Drop
An event where users receive free tokens/NFTs for holding onto certain types of assets.
Dutch auction
A bidding technique that considers all bids received on a given asset before arriving at a ceiling price, which gradually drops at specific time intervals.
ENS (.eth)
Stands for Ethereum Name Service, a service that sells .eth domains. These domains shorten your long Ethereum wallet, making it easier for others to identify and send ETH/NFTs to identify your wallet.
ERC-721
A token standard that allows for the creation of unique, non-fungible tokens. It differs from ERC-20, for example, which is used to mint fungible tokens.
ETH
Abbreviation for Ethereum.
Ethereum
The name of a particular cryptocurrency, also known as ETH, that supports dApps, smart contracts and is typically used in NFT transactions.
Etherscan
A block explorer and analytics platform for Ethereum. Use it to verify balances, transactions, check the value of your digital collectibles and more.
Exchange
A platform where you can buy and sell cryptocurrency, trade one crypto for another and even purchase with credit cards.
Farm
A commonly used term in gaming where players earn in-game assets in exchange for their time and effort.
Fiat
Government-issued currencies (e.g. USD, Euro and GBP) that are not pegged to the price of a commodity like gold or silver.
Flip
When you flip something, be it an NFT or token, you buy and sell it quickly to make a quick profit.
Floor
The ‘floor’ or ‘floor price’ of a project is the lowest price you can buy an NFT from the collection on the secondary market.
Fractional ownership
Partial ownership rights over an NFT. Sellers can sell percentages of a work and buyers can buy a portion based on what they can afford.
FUD
‘FUD’ stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. This term is used in the crypto space to describe negative and inaccurate information regarding a project or token.
Fungible Tokens (FT)
Interchangeable and tradable tokens, such as ETH and BTC.
Fungibility
Replaceability. The ability of a good or asset to be traded with other individual goods or assets of the same type. On the contrary, something that is non-fungible, like a piece of art, is one-of-a-kind.
GameFi
Refers to decentralized applications (dapps) with economic incentives, which generally involve rewarding tokens or NFTs when players perform game-related tasks such as winning battles, mining in-game resources or cultivating digital crops. This approach is also known as play-to-earn (P2E).
Gas
Gas is the amount (in native cryptocurrency) required by the network for a user to perform cryptocurrency transactions on the blockchain. For example, you’ll need to pay gas in ETH when you interact with the Ethereum network.
Gas war
A gas war occurs during an NFT collection launch where there are more buyers (e.g. 100,000) than the amount of NFTs (e.g. 10,000) available for sale. In these situations, you’ll need to increase your gas fee to outbid the others’, in hopes that your transaction would go through faster than theirs to secure your purchase.
Generative art
Art that is created (be it in whole or partially) with the use of an autonomous system. This autonomous system typically requires minimal or no human intervention and can independently determine the features of an artwork. All major collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Pudgy Penguins, that were created in recent years are generative art.
Governance tokens
Cryptocurrencies that represent the main utility token of DeFi protocols and blockchain projects. Holders of governance tokens are also granted voting power to determine the direction and future of the project.
GPU
Short for graphics processing unit. GPU is the processor that’s needed to mine certain types of cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum.
Gwei
Gwei is a denomination of the cryptocurrency ether (ETH). Also called nanoether, Gwei denotes the ninth power of the fractional ETH (i.e. 0.000000001 ETH). In simpler terms, Gwei is the gas price required to successfully conduct a transaction or execute a contract on the blockchain.
Hashrate
A measure of the speed at which your GPU can mine crypto tokens.
Hashmasks
Hashmasks are digital paintings made by a globally-distributed team of 70 artists managed by Suum Cuique Labs that offer consumers control over the art. According to the Hashmasks Manifesto, “Each holder has the ability to contribute to the completion of the art piece by giving a name of their preference to the Hashmasks they hold via the Name Change Token (NCT)”.
ICO
Acronym for Initial Coin Offering. It is an unregulated funding method, where the development team for a new cryptocurrency venture sells digital assets to early adopters.
IDO
Acronym for Initial Dex Offering. In IDOs, new NFTs or tokens are launched via a decentralized liquidity exchange as a fundraising method for upcoming crypto or NFT projects.
IGO
Acronym for Initial Game Offering. Similar to an ICO, IGO participants get early access to the in-game assets (typically NFTs) while supporting the game’s early development.
InterPlanetary File System
A means of storing NFT data that is considered superior to storing on an HTTP gateway URL, since the latter is tied to a specific provider. IPFS addresses allow users to find a piece of content as long as someone on the network is hosting it.
KYC
Acronym for Know Your Customer. It is a common process in which companies verify their users’ identities by requesting a series of personal information (e.g. passport/government-issued ID, selfie, contact number and residential address) to comply with KYC regulations.
Layer 2
Layer 2s are scaling solutions that operate on top of an underlying blockchain protocol (e.g. Ethereum) to improve its scalability and efficiency.
Liquidity
Liquidity is the ability of a coin to be easily converted into cash or other coins.
Liquidity pool
Crowd-sourced pool of cryptocurrencies or tokens locked in a smart contract to facilitate trades between the assets on a decentralized exchange (DEX).
Metadata
The metadata of an NFT is the necessary and unique data that make up the NFT and defines how it looks.
Metamask (MM)
A free and widely used browser wallet (also available as a mobile app) allowing users to store and swap crypto, interact with the Ethereum blockchain and other dApps. MM is the shorthand for MetaMask.
Metaverse
A network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection. It’s typically a combination of multiple elements of technology, including virtual reality, augmented reality and video.
Migration
Migration occurs when a token or NFT is transferred from one blockchain to another during a blockchain changeover.
Miner
Someone who mines tokens on a blockchain network with their GPU.
Mining
The competitive process of solving cryptographic problems to verify and add new transactions to the blockchain for a cryptocurrency that uses the proof-of-work (PoW) method. The first one to solve it gets to add the current block on the blockchain and receive newly minted tokens as a reward.
Minting
The creation process of an NFT.
Minting interval
How often you can mint or create tokens.
Mods
Refers to the moderators of Twitter, Discord or Reddit channels. The role of moderators is to ensure a healthy, active and informative community experience in these spaces.
Moon
One of the most common financial market terms used in the crypto and NFT space, which refers to the exponential growth of an asset’s value. For example, if the price of a coin/NFT is experiencing a spike, we can say that the asset is ‘mooning’ or ‘going to the moon’.
Multisig
Short for “multi-signature wallet”. It is a wallet that requires more than one signature to a transaction before moving funds for added security. Multisig wallets are frequently used in DAOs.
NFT
Stands for Non-Fungible Token. It’s a unique, one-of-a-kind crypto asset (which can be anything from art to music) that’s stored on a blockchain.
Non-custodial wallet
A non-custodial wallet that offers you sole control of your private keys. On the other hand, a custodial wallet gives another party (usually a web-based exchange) control of your private keys. Some of the most popular non-custodian wallets are Metamask, Ledger Nano X, Trezor One.
Off-chain metadata
Metadata that is stored outside the blockchain.
On-chain metadata
Metadata that is directly incorporated in a smart contract.
Open editions
An NFT for which any number of editions may be minted, which is the opposite of a limited edition NFT (e.g. a collection with only 10,000 editions).
Oracle
An oracle is a code that provides smart contracts with external data by serving as a bridge between blockchains and information that resides on outside networks.
OS
Short for OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace on Ethereum.
Play to Earn (P2E)
Blockchain-based games that incentivize players with tradable tokens and in-game asset rewards.
Paper hands
The opposite of ‘diamond hands’. It refers to someone who sold something (usually an NFT) at a price that’s perceived to be too low.
Peer To Peer (P2P)
Transactions that are made directly between person-to-person, without the need for an intermediary.
PFP project
Shorthand for ‘profile picture’, so a ‘PFP project’ is essentially the same as a 10k project or an avatar project. This term is coined because the avatars in these NFT collections are often used as profile pictures on Twitter, Discord, etc.
Polygon
A secondary scaling solution on the Ethereum blockchain that provides cheaper, faster and more secure payment transactions.
Pre-mine
The act of creating a set amount of tokens before their public launch.
Presale
A funding method often used by companies or project developers to raise capital through an initial sale (such as ICO, IDO and IGO) where investors and early adopters use ETH (or other altcoins) to purchase the new tokens/NFTs.
Private key
A private key is a variable in cryptography that is used with an algorithm to encrypt and decrypt data. In cryptocurrency, private keys are also used to sign transactions and prove ownership of a blockchain address.
Proof of Stake (PoS)
One way crypto projects use to verify transactions. In PoS, you’re rewarded with tokens as you hold on to them for a certain period. Like mining, this process requires computing power and electricity usage.
Proof of Work (PoW)
Another way of verifying transactions. For PoW, miners are required to solve hashing problems that verify and adds new transactions to the blockchain. This highly secure method makes it difficult for hackers to crack the network as they’d need over 51% of all computing power available worldwide.
Public key
Similar to private keys, it’s a cryptographic key that gives others viewing access to your wallet or NFTs. But unlike private keys, it doesn’t need to be kept secret.
Pump and dump
A pump occurs when a person or a group of ‘whales’ buy or convince others to purchase large quantities of a crypto or an NFT to drive up the price to a peak. When the price peaks, these people sell their position high (quickly and all at once) for a hefty profit, therefore dumping the price. Slower investors or newbies who bought in at the peak price may find themselves at a loss.
QR code
A machine-readable code consisting of an array of black and white squares. This is the most convenient way to send NFTs or Ethereum if you’re using a mobile wallet that supports the scanning of QR codes.
Rarities
Digital collectables and in-game NFTs typically come with different rarities (such as common, uncommon, rare, legendary and mystic) and get assigned with a certain edition number (e.g. #001/100). They’ll each have unique IDs and metadata.
Reveal
When you mint an NFT, especially for new generative projects, the artwork won’t actually be created until the minting is complete. This means that you’re purchasing a ‘blind box’ and won’t know exactly what you get until it’s time to reveal it. Depending on the creators behind the collection, the NFT may reveal immediately after purchase, when the collection sells out, or with a delay of 24 or 48 hours for instance.
Reward pool
In P2E games, a portion of the tokens is allocated in a ‘reward pool’ for the distribution of tokens to players who earned them through their gaming efforts. Depending on the game mechanics, this reward pool is kept balanced and refilled through various sink features that’ll typically require players to reinvest in the game.
Ring Signature
A type of digital transaction that can be performed by any member of a set of users that each have the keys. It also lets the sender know someone signed it but not who, which means they can’t spend funds unless another signer provides their approval as well.
Roadmap
The set of activities or development plans for an NFT project or P2E game. A project with a solid roadmap is generally viewed to have more potential, sustainability and designed to stay for the long haul as compared to one with no foreseeable updates.
Royalties
Money earned by an NFT creator through the token’s resale. Some NFTs automatically pay these commission each time an NFT is traded. An NFT can also be hardcoded to pay an artist royalties forever, which is a desirable use case that has the potential to reshape the music industry.
Rugpull
A rugpull is essentially a scam where the team behind a seemingly legit project disappear with all the money raised immediately after launch. While you might get an actual NFT or the tokens you purchased, they’ll most likely be worthless.
Satoshi
An extremely fine fraction of a bitcoin (0.00000001 BTC). Named after Satoshi Nakamoto – the pseudonym of the person or persons who developed bitcoin.
Secondary market
Also called the aftermarket, a secondary market is the financial market where investors trade their assets with other investors rather than from issuing companies themselves. For NFTs, they can be sold or purchased on the secondary market after minting. Examples of popular secondary markets are OpenSea and TofuNFT.
Seed hash
A 32-byte random value that allows you to regenerate public and private keys.
Sharding
Sharding in the context of NFTs refers to the practice of splitting NFTs into smaller subsets, generally for the purpose of allowing groups of individuals to purchase an expensive NFT so that it can be owned collectively.
Shilling
When someone promotes an NFT project and encourages others to invest in a specific NFT as a marketing strategy.
Smart contract
An agreement that automatically executes when predetermined conditions are met. They’re enforced on the blockchain network, irreversible, and not subject to change.
Snapshot
Usually used by NFT creators and P2E games to determine who are eligible for airdrops and early access at a certain point in time. For instance, all owners who hold NFT X in their wallet at the time of the snapshot on 1 January, get a free airdrop of NFT Y next week.
Solidity
An object-oriented, high-level programming language for implementing smart contracts.
Staking
The process of locking up tokens in a wallet for a certain amount of time to participate in transaction validation (for PoS blockchains). Stakers get rewarded every few seconds or after processing a certain number of blocks.
Szn
Stands for season referring to crypto or NFTmarket cycles.
(Floor) sweeping
Means to buy up a large quantity of the cheapest NFTs in a collection on the secondary market to raise the floor prices.
Tokenomics
A word coined by combining “token” and “economics”. Tokenomics include statistics, quality and data of a token that may interest investors.
Tokens
Another word for digital assets.
Utility-focused NFTs
NFTs with real-world use cases. For example, owning a Bored Ape NFT grants exclusive members-only benefits such as access to a collaborative graffiti board.
Utility token
A fungible token that serves some use case within a specific ecosystem. These tokens are required to utilize some functionality of a smart contract system or perform some action on a certain network.
Vault
A smart contract that escrows collateral and keeps track of the value of the collateral.
Verified contract
A publicly available contract that allows users to read, study and audit the code. Verified contracts are prevalent on transactions where parties require a higher level of trust, preferably verifiable by another third party.
Volatility
A measure of how much the value of an asset has moved up or down over time.
Wallet
A digital wallet that allows users to store and manage their cryptoassets.
Web3
An idea/vision for a new iteration of the web based on a decentralized online ecosystem powered by blockchain technology.
Whale
Someone with a lot of capital, which grants them the power to singlehandedly move markets either upward by buying a lot from a given collection, or downward by selling.
Whitelist
Often abbreviate as “WL”, a whitelist is a special list that gains early access to an NFT drop before the general public.
Whitepaper
An officially released document by a crypto project team that offers investors with detailed technical information about its concept and roadmap.
NFT slang, abbreviations, intentional misspellings and Twitter terminology
Crypto Twitter and NFT communities often employ a range of terminology and slang that’d seem alien or daunting for someone who’s new to the space. So here’s a bonus list of commonly used terms that’d be help you sound like a true NFT insider:
Term
Definition
AMA
Acronym for “Ask me anything”. Many NFT projects hold live AMA sections regularly to keep up the engagement with their community.
AFAIK
Acronym for “As far as I know”.
ATH / ATL
Stands for “All-Time high” and “All-time low”. When a NFT project or token reaches the highest or lowest price to date.
BTD / BTFD
BTD refers to “Buy the dips” while BTFD refers to “Buy the fxxxxxx dips”. It means to purchase an asset after its price has dropped, which is usually considered as a bargain since the asset is likely to bounce back and increase in value after the short-term correction.
Ded
Simply a misspelling of ‘dead’. Commonly used by NFT communities to refer to a rugpulled project.
DYOR
Acronym for “Do your own research”.
Flex
Slang for showing off. NFT owners usually flex by setting their high-end NFTs as their discord or Twitter display picture.
FOMO
Acronym for “Fear of missing out”. In the NFT space, people have the tendency to FOMO (usually without DYOR) into buying an expensive NFT artwork, fearing that they might miss out on the next big thing.
Fren
Misspelling for “Friend”.
Fudder
Someone who engages in FUD about a NFT project.
Fudding your own bags
When an NFT collector or crypto investor spreads false and negative information about an NFT or crypto project he/she has invested in or has a stake in.
GM / GN
If you’ve seen crypto Twitter (or discord) flooded with “GM” and “GN”, know that it simply means “good morning” and “good night”.
GMI
Means “Going to make it”. Often used by NFT hodlers to express optimism for their collection. For instance, “If you hodl this amazing NFT, it’ll moon some day and you’re gonna be living the life!”.
GTD
Acronym for “Going to dust”. When a token or NFT project turns out to be a bad investment and its value is quickly diminishing.
HODL
A misspelling of ‘hold’ used by crypto people to say that they’re holding on to their assets through thick and thin.
ICYMI
Acronym for “In case you missed it”.
IDK
Acronym for “I don’t know”.
IRL
Short for “In real life”, refers to the physical world we’re living in. Opposite to the virtual world.
IYKYK
Short for “If you know, you know”. It implies that a message, post or information that’d make sense to the insiders but not the general public.
KOL
Short for “Key opinion leader”, a synonym for social media influencer.
LFG
Means ‘Let’s f***king go!’. It’s used in excitement about new project launches, huge NFT news and other massively positive updates.
Looks rare
Rarity is relatively important in NFT collections. But when others say something like “ok, looks rare”, it’s being used ironically — they actually mean “it doesn’t look rare”.
Sh*tposter
Someone who mostly posts meme content on Twitter for thrills.
Simp / Simping
An enthusiast who comes off as trying too hard impress someone.
Snag
It means to buy an NFT quickly and for a very low price. Can also be known as sniping.
McDonald’s
A funny reference to “McDonald’s” as the backup career plan in case the GMI scenario doesn’t come to fruition.
Meatspace
Same meaning as IRL. Refers to the real-life physical world, as opposed to the virtual world.
Moonboy
Someone who has blind faith in a token or NFT project and stands by it no matter what.
Never trust, always verify
Treat everyone or every project like something potentially malicious.
NFA
Short for “Not financial advice”.
NGMI
Short for “Not going to make it”. See our definition for GMI above.
Noob / Pleb
A person who’s new to crypto and NFTs (or any other topic) and doesn’t understand how it works. Can be pretty offensive depending on context.
OG
Slang for “original”. This term originated from “Original gangster” and refers to someone or something that is an original or originator, especially one that’s held in high regard by the community.
Probably nothing
This term is used ironically to mean “probably something important”. For example, one may say “This freshly launched NFT collection just hit No.1 in trading volume on OpenSea. Probably nothing.”
Pumping
Means the price or value for a token or digital asset is skyrocketing.
Rekt
Slang term for “wrecked”. Often used in the online gaming community to refer to someone (or something) who has been totally ruined or destroyed. In the crypto space, getting rekt usually means experiencing severe financial loss due to bad investment decisions.
Right Click Save As
An ironic expression used by non-believers in NFT. Someone who mocks the NFT space by saying digital artwork can be easily attained on the internet through Right Click Save As.
Snipe
Getting a great deal. Such as being able to quickly buy an undervalued NFT before someone else, or before the floor price rises.
WAGMI
Short for “We’re all going to make it”. See our definition for GMI above.
Wen
A silly misspelling that’s used ironically by NFT and crypto communities, often in “Wen moon?” which loosely translates to “When will the price of this asset rise exponentially?”
YOLO
Acronym for “You only live once”, which expresses the view that one should enjoy the present moment without worrying about the future (or consequences).
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volatile and sensitive to secondary activity. Performance is unpredictable and past performance is no guarantee of
future performance. Consider your own circumstances, and obtain your own advice, before relying on this information.
You should also verify the nature of any product or service (including its legal status and relevant regulatory
requirements) and consult the relevant Regulators' websites before making any decision. Finder, or the author, may
have holdings in the cryptocurrencies discussed.
Zyane Tan is an editor at Finder. An experienced copywriter and content creator, Zyane enjoys writing on a wide array of subjects. When she’s not busy typing away, she’s reading and musing over a pint.
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