Major Cryptocurrency Abbreviations

Although Bitcoin is still the most widely used form of cryptocurrency, there are many others. Check out this list of cryptocurrencies and their abbreviations that you may come across.

• AUR - Auroracoin
• BCC - BitConnect (inactive)
• BCH - Bitcoin Cash
• BTC or XBT - Bitcoin
• DASH - Dash
• DOGE or XDG - Dogecoin
• EOS - EOS.IO
• ETC - Ethereum Classic
• ETH - Ether (also known as Ethereum)
• GRC - Gridcoin
• LTC - Litecoin
• KOI or COYE - Coinye (inactive)
• MZC - Mazacoin
• Nano - Nano
• NEO - Neo
• NMC - Namecoin
• Nxt - NXT
• POT - PotCoin
• PPC - Peercoin
• TIT - Titcoin
• USDC - USD Coin (stablecoin)
• USDT - Tether
• VTC - Vertcoin
• XEM - NEM
• XLM - Stellar
• XMR - Monero
• XPM - Primecoin
• XRP - Ripple
• XVG - Verge
• ZEC - Zcash

Mining, authenticating, and trading cryptocurrency depend on three elements: blockchains (transactional records), online networks, and technical infrastructure. Here are some of the popular abbreviations and acronyms that you’ll find on your cryptocurrency journey.

You can use a DAO to conduct a P2P transaction or to measure MACD. But what does that even mean? Check out a list of commonly used terms when referring to blockchains or trading networks.

• 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
• 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
• YTD - Year to Date

Cybersecurity is a major element of using cryptocurrency successfully. Developers and users alike should know the basics of technical cryptocurrency abbreviations. Some of these abbreviations include:

• 2FA – Two Factor Authentication
• Addy - Address
• API - Application Programming Interface
• ASIC – Application Specific Integrated Circuit
• BFA - Brute Force Attack
• Bech32 - Bitcoin address format (also known as bc1 addresses)
• CPU – Central Processing Unit
• BFT – Byzantine Fault Tolerance
• DAG – Directed Acyclic Graph
• DAPP or dApp – Decentralized Application
• DDoS – Distributed Denial of Service
• DEVCON - Developers Conference

• GPU – Graphical Processing Unit
• IPFS – Interplanetary Files System
• PKI – Public Key Infrastructure
• Multi-sig - Multi-Signature
• NONCE – Number Used Only Once
• SHA-256 - Secure Hash Acronym (256-bit)
• WWDC - Worldwide Developers Conference

The ultimate objective of using cryptocurrency is to make money. Like stock traders, Bitcoin owners enjoy the risk and payoff of trading. See how technology and economics combine in a list of trading lingo and financial abbreviations.

• AML - Anti-Money Laundering
• ATH - All-Time High
• ATL - All-Time Low
• ALT or Altcoin – Alternative Cryptocurrency (cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin)
• CEX – Centralized Exchange
• CMC - Coinmarketcap
• DAICO - Decentralized Autonomous Initial Coin Offering
• DCA - Dollar Cost Averaging
• DeFi - Decentralized Finance
• DEX – Decentralized Exchange
• DLT - Distributed Ledger Technology
• ERC-20 - Token standard for Ethereum
• ERC-721 - Token standard for NFT (non-fungible tokens)
• ETF - Exchange-Traded Fund
• ETP – Exchange-Traded Product
• FIAT – Conventional government-issued currency (e.g. US Dollar, Euro)
• IBO - Initial Bounty Offering
• ICO – Initial Coin Offering
• ITO – Initial Token Offering
• mBTC - Millibitcoin (0.001 BTC)
• MCAP – Market Capitalization
• PnD – Pump-and-Dump scheme
• OTC – Over the Counter
• SATS – Satoshis (the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC)
• STO – Securities Token Offering
• TPS – Transactions Per Second
• Tx – Transaction
• TxID – Transaction Identification
• uBTC - MicroBitcoin (0.000001 BTC)
• UXTO - Unspent Transaction

Every online community has its own jargon and slang, and the cryptocurrency world is no different. Members experience both FOMO and JOMO while they try to BUIDL their future and HODL. Read up on cryptocurrency slang terms that you might need when interacting with experienced users.

• BUIDL – “Build” (purposeful misspelling for ironic meaning)
• FOMO – Fear of Missing Out
• HODL – Hold On for Dear Life (purposeful misspelling of “HOLD")
• BTD or BTFD – Buy The Dip or Buy the F****** Dip
• DYOR – Do Your Own Research
• FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt
• FUDster - A person who spreads Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt
• ELI5 - Explain It Like I’m 5
• JOMO - Joy of Missing Out
• KYC - Know Your Customer
• Lambo - Lamborghini (cryptocurrency term for getting rich)
• TLT - Think Long Term
• OCO - One Cancels the Other
• AMA - Ask Me Anything
• REKT - “Wrecked” (meaning major losses)
• TOR - The Onion Router (one who sends anonymous data)
• CT - Crypto Twitter

Like standard currency, cryptocurrency is regulated by various bodies and commissions. These organizations create regulations to avoid fraud and illegal schemes. Some of these commissions include:

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

You may be an expert on cryptocurrency abbreviations now, but what about world currencies? Check out an article that lists the 180 currencies used around the world. Or perhaps you’d like to expand your knowledge of government accounting terminology with a helpful explanation of important terms.