A meme coin glossary is a list of the slang and technical terms traders use around meme coins. This one explains more than 80 of them, from ape and jeet to bonding curve and rug pull.
I have traded meme coins for years, and the language still changes every cycle. So this page stays updated as new slang appears. Terms are grouped by topic, which means you can jump straight to the part you need.
The Basics
Meme coin: A token whose value comes from attention and community instead of a product. In other words, the joke is the fundamentals.
Ticker: The short symbol of a coin, such as DOGE or PEPE. Copycats often reuse popular tickers, so the ticker alone proves nothing.
CA: Short for contract address, the unique on-chain ID of a token. Therefore, always buy by CA and never by name.
Market cap: Price multiplied by circulating supply. Traders say “MC” and use it to compare coin sizes.
FDV: Fully diluted valuation, meaning price multiplied by total supply. Our market cap vs FDV guide explains why the gap matters.
Liquidity: The money sitting in a pool that lets you buy and sell. Because thin liquidity moves fast, small sells can crash the price.
LP: Liquidity pool, or the tokens that represent a share of one. Whoever holds the LP tokens controls the pool.
DEX: A decentralized exchange where trades run through smart contracts. Most meme coins trade there first.
Holders: The number of wallets that own a coin. However, bots can fake this figure, so read it with care.
Supply: The total number of tokens that exist. Many launchpad coins start with one billion.
Launch Mechanics
Launchpad: A platform where anyone can create a coin in minutes. For example, our StonkFun launch guide shows the full process.
Bonding curve: A pricing formula that raises the price as more people buy. Our bonding curve explainer covers the details.
Graduation: The moment a coin fills its bonding curve. After that, it moves to a regular DEX pool.
Migration: The actual move of liquidity from the launchpad to a DEX. Prices often swing hard around it.
Fair launch: A launch with no presale and no team allocation. Everyone buys from the same starting price.
Stealth launch: A coin that goes live without any announcement. As a result, only early watchers and bots get the first prices.
Presale: A sale of tokens before public trading starts. Buyers send money first and trust the team to deliver.
Dev: The person or team that created the coin. “Dev sold” is rarely good news.
Deployer: The wallet that created the token contract. Its history shows what the dev launched before.
LP burn: Sending LP tokens to a dead address forever. Consequently, nobody can ever pull that liquidity.
LP lock: Placing LP tokens in a time-locked contract. This protects the pool until the lock expires.
Renounced contract: A contract whose owner gave up all control. Therefore, the dev can no longer change its rules.
Trading Terms
Ape: To buy quickly with little or no research. Usually, FOMO does the thinking.
Snipe: To buy in the first seconds or blocks after launch.
Sniper bot: Software that snipes automatically. Humans rarely beat it on speed.
Bundle: Several wallets buying in the same block, usually under one person’s control. Bundles hide how much an insider really owns.
Slippage: The gap between the price you expect and the price you get. Thin pools therefore need higher slippage settings.
MEV: Profit that bots extract by reordering transactions. The name is short for maximal extractable value.
Sandwich attack: A bot buys right before your trade and sells right after. You pay a worse price, and the bot keeps the difference.
Entry: The price or market cap where you bought.
Scale out: Selling a position in parts instead of all at once. Many traders sell their initial stake first.
Moonbag: A small bag you keep after taking profit. If the coin keeps running, you still win.
Round trip: Riding a coin up and then all the way back down. In short, you never took the profit.
PnL card: A shareable image showing a trade’s profit or loss. Be careful, because people fake them.
Holder Types
Degen: A trader who takes very high risks, short for degenerate. Most people wear it as a badge of honor.
Jeet: Someone who sells too early for a tiny profit. Communities use it as an insult.
Paper hands: A holder who sells at the first sign of fear.
Diamond hands: A holder who refuses to sell through big swings. Sometimes that is conviction, and sometimes it is denial.
Bagholder: A person stuck with a coin that dumped. Their bag is now worth far less.
Whale: A wallet large enough to move the price alone.
Insider: Someone with early knowledge or cheap supply before the public. Insiders usually sell into the hype.
Cabal: A coordinated group of insiders and influencers behind a coin. Together, they control supply and attention.
Exit liquidity: The late buyers whose money lets early holders cash out. Above all, avoid becoming it.
Price Talk
Runner: A coin that keeps climbing for days or weeks instead of minutes.
Send: To pump hard. “Send it” means buyers are pushing the price up.
Moon: A very large price increase. Similarly, “mooning” means it is happening right now.
10x: A tenfold gain. Likewise, a 100x turns $100 into $10,000.
ATH: All-time high, the highest price a coin has ever reached.
Dip: A drop in price after a run. Buying one only works if the coin recovers.
Top blast: Buying at the very peak, right before the dump.
Rekt: Slang for wrecked, meaning a heavy loss.
Cooked: Finished or beyond saving. Both a coin and a trader can be cooked.
Scams and Red Flags
Rug pull: Insiders drain the liquidity or dump their supply, then vanish. Our crypto rug pull guide breaks down every type.
Honeypot: A token you can buy but cannot sell. Because nobody can exit, the chart only shows green.
Slow rug: A team that sells quietly for weeks while promising updates.
Pump and dump: A group inflates the price with hype and then sells into the buyers.
Dev farm: A dev who launches coin after coin to dump on early buyers. Each launch is just another harvest.
Fake volume: Trades between a team’s own wallets that make a coin look busy. Traders also call it wash trading.
Copycat ticker: A fake coin using a popular name to trap confused buyers.
Vamp: Copying a coin or narrative from another chain or platform to steal its attention.
Drainer: A malicious site or contract that empties your wallet after you sign.
Knowing these words is only half the job. Before any buy, run the checks in my memecoin due diligence routine.
Culture and Slang
Trenches: The chaotic front line of brand-new meme coin trading. Our post on the trenches in crypto tells the full story.
KOL: Key opinion leader, or crypto influencer. Meet the biggest names in our top meme coin KOLs list.
Shill: To promote a coin, often while holding it.
Raid: A coordinated wave of replies and posts that pushes a coin on social media.
CT: Crypto Twitter, the crypto community on X.
Alpha: Valuable information that few people have yet.
Caller: Someone who posts coin picks to followers. Many callers get paid or buy first.
FUD: Fear, uncertainty and doubt. In practice, it means negative talk about a coin.
FOMO: Fear of missing out. It causes most bad entries.
WAGMI: “We are all gonna make it,” a rallying cry in good times.
NGMI: “Not gonna make it,” aimed at bad decisions.
Cope: Excuses a holder makes to avoid admitting a loss.
Normie: An outsider who does not follow crypto culture. Normie buying often marks the late stage of a run.
Market Structure
Narrative: The story that makes people care about a coin, such as AI, cats or politics.
Meta: The narrative or coin style that is currently winning. Metas rotate quickly, so timing matters.
Mindshare: How much attention a coin holds across social media.
PvP: Player versus player. No new money enters, so traders only win by taking from each other.
PvE: Player versus environment. Fresh money flows in, and therefore most holders can win together.
CTO: Community takeover. Holders take charge of a coin after the dev abandons it.
Cult coin: A meme with unusually loyal holders who rarely sell.
Next Pepe: Shorthand for the coin that could run from millions to billions. I track my candidates in what is the next Pepe.
Putting the Terms to Work
Vocabulary will not make you profitable on its own. However, it stops you from buying things you do not understand. From here, three steps make sense.
First, learn what separates a real contender from noise. Our guide on what makes a good meme coin covers that.
Second, see the theory applied. My meme coin shill list shows the coins I rate this cycle.
Third, pick your tools. We compare apps and terminals in best places to trade meme coins. For mobile trading, my FOMO app review explains the setup I use.
Keep This Content Free
Nobody should need a paid course to understand what “jeet” means. If this glossary helped, you can support the site by signing up through our OKX or Bybit links. We earn a commission, and you pay nothing extra.
Final Words
Meme coin slang looks silly, but it describes real mechanics and real risks. Once you know the words, charts and group chats start making sense. Moreover, the scam terms alone can save you money. Bookmark this meme coin glossary and come back when a new word shows up. I will keep adding terms as the trenches invent them.
FAQ
What is a meme coin glossary? A meme coin glossary is a reference list that explains the slang and technical terms used in meme coin trading. It covers launch mechanics, trading words, scam types and community slang.
What does jeet mean in crypto? A jeet is someone who sells a coin too early for a small profit. Meme coin communities use the word as an insult for weak holders.
What does CA mean in meme coins? CA stands for contract address. It is the unique on-chain ID of a token, and it is the only reliable way to confirm you are buying the right coin.
What is exit liquidity? Exit liquidity means the late buyers whose money allows early holders and insiders to sell. If you buy the top of a hyped coin, you are probably the exit liquidity.
What does CTO mean in meme coins? CTO stands for community takeover. It happens when the original dev abandons a coin and the holders take over its socials and promotion.
What is the difference between PvP and PvE? In a PvP market, no new money enters, so traders only profit from each other’s losses. In a PvE market, fresh money flows in and most holders can gain together.
