I’m starting to wonder how many times I’ve read questions from people who are just getting into crypto and say: “I don’t understand what everyone is talking about.” FOMO, HODL, ATH—and their heads are spinning. That’s why I wanted to gather everything here that you should truly know before you start investing.

We’ll start with the basic terms you hear every day. FOMO is the fear of missing out—everyone knows it. HODL is a misspelling that stuck and means holding a cryptocurrency for a long time. ATH is the all-time high, ATL is the all-time low. GM is just the usual “good morning” on Twitter, and what does LFG mean? It stands for “Let’s Fucking Go”—a word you’ll hear when people are excited about a price increase or a new project. A bull market is when prices are rising; a bear market is when they’re falling. A whale is a person with large holdings who can influence the market.

Now, more advanced things. Pump and dump is manipulation when someone artificially inflates the price so they can sell higher. DeFi means decentralized finance—an entire ecosystem without intermediaries. Staking is holding a cryptocurrency in the network to earn rewards. Mining is the process in which people use computational power to obtain new coins.

ICO is an initial coin offering, meaning how projects used to raise money at the beginning. DEX is a decentralized exchange; CEX is a centralized exchange like Gate.io. Fiat is just government-issued money. A wallet is a digital tool for storing cryptocurrency. A private key is the password to your wallet—never show it to anyone. A public key is something like an address that you can share.

Smart contracts are programs that automatically execute conditions without intermediaries. Gas fees are transaction costs on networks such as Ethereum. NFT stands for non-fungible tokens—unique digital assets. Rug pull is a scam when project creators suddenly disappear with the funds. Liquidity is the amount of funds available for trading.

Moon means a rapid price increase. Shill is aggressive promotion of a project. Rekt is a heavy loss. DYOR means do your own research—very important. FUD is the spread of fear, uncertainty, and doubt with negative information. BTD means buy the dip, meaning buy when the price drops.

APY is the annual rate of return. TVL is total value locked—an important metric for DeFi. KYC is identity verification. DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization. Layer 1 refers to base blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Layer 2 refers to solutions that speed up transactions. Cross-chain is the ability to transfer between different networks. Oracle is a system that provides data from the real world. Airdrop is free distribution of tokens. Hard fork is an update that changes network rules.

Now, classification. Altcoins are all cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin. They may have different consensus mechanisms, faster transactions, smart contracts. The diversity of altcoins provides a lot of possibilities, but also risks.

Shitcoins are altcoins that have no real value or purpose. They may have no innovation, be vulnerable to manipulation, and lack transparency from the team. This is a high-risk investment.

Meme coins are cryptocurrencies created based on internet memes. Dogecoin is a classic—it started as a joke, but gained a huge community. Elon Musk supported it; some traders accept it. Meme coins are driven by the community and online trends, and they’re very volatile. When a meme coin explodes in price, the community starts calling it “the golden dog.” PEPE and Shiba Inu are other popular meme coins.

Air coins are projects without solid fundamentals. No real support, no practical use—based on market hype. High risk; they can disappear quickly. Always do research before investing.

When you’re just starting out, remember—LFG what does it mean? It’s not just a term; it’s an attitude, but with a clear head. Don’t invest in something you don’t understand. Do your own research, assess the risks, and don’t let emotions take over. Crypto has enormous potential, but also huge dangers. On Gate.io, you can explore these different assets and learn in practice, but always responsibly.