Professional Terms in the Cryptocurrency Market

I. Market and Trading Terms

1. Bull Market

   • Refers to a market trend with sustained price increases, where investors are optimistic and eager to buy.

   • Example: In 2021, BTC rose from $30,000 to $69,000, known as a "super bull market".

2. Bear Market

   • A market with continuous price declines, where investors are generally pessimistic and dominated by selling.

   • Characteristics: Major coins drop by over 50%, and altcoins widely go to zero.

3. Consolidation

   • Prices fluctuate within a narrow range with no obvious upward or downward trend, also called "sideways trading".

4. Pullback

   • A short-term price decline during an uptrend, typically a technical correction.

   • Example: ETH rose from $4,000 to $4,800 then fell back to $4,400, which is a normal pullback.

5. Rebound

   • A short-term price increase during a downtrend, possibly a technical recovery from oversold conditions.

II. Investment and Operational Strategies

1. Bottom Fishing

   • Buying at low prices in the hope of profiting from a subsequent rebound, with the risk that "the bottom may have another bottom".

2. Top Escape

   • Selling at high prices to avoid losses from a subsequent decline, with the challenge of identifying the true "top".

3. Stop Loss

   • Forced selling at a loss, also known as "cutting losses", used to control further declines.

4. All-In

   • Investing all funds into a single cryptocurrency, a high-risk move common among aggressive investors.

5. Dollar-Cost Averaging (DCA)

   • Regularly buying cryptocurrencies in fixed amounts to reduce the impact of short-term price fluctuations, suitable for long-term investment.

III. Token and Project Types

1. Major Coins

   • Cryptocurrencies with high market cap and strong consensus, such as BTC, ETH, SOL, etc., with relatively strong risk resistance.

2. Altcoins

   • All cryptocurrencies except BTC, carrying high risks, with some projects having no real value.

3. Air Coins

   • Tokens with no technical backing or real-world use cases, relying solely on hype—most eventually lose all value.

4. Exchange Tokens

   • Tokens issued by exchanges, such as BNB, OKX, typically tied to platform ecosystems (e.g., trading fee deductions, dividends).

5. Governance Tokens

   • Tokens granting holders decision-making rights in projects, such as UNI, AAVE, allowing participation in community proposal voting.

IV. Technical and Mechanistic Terms

1. Blockchain

   • A distributed ledger technology that ensures data immutability through cryptography, serving as the underlying technology for cryptocurrencies.

2. Smart Contract

   • An automatically executed code protocol requiring no third-party intermediaries, commonly seen on public chains like Ethereum and Solana.

3. DeFi (Decentralized Finance)

   • Blockchain-based financial services, such as lending (Aave) and decentralized exchanges (Uniswap).

4. NFT (Non-Fungible Token)

   • Unique digital assets, such as digital artworks or virtual land, representing specific rights.

5. PoW (Proof of Work)

   • One of the blockchain consensus mechanisms, where mining rights are competed for through computing power (e.g., BTC mining), with high energy consumption.

6. PoS (Proof of Stake)

   • Mining rights are allocated based on the quantity and duration of tokens held, with low energy consumption—ETH 2.0 has shifted to this mechanism.

V. Risk and Warning Terms

1. Go to Zero

   • Token prices drop to near zero, causing investors to lose all capital, common in air coins or project runaways.

2. Rug Pull

   • Project teams suddenly withdraw liquidity pool funds, causing token prices to crash, a form of malicious fraud.

3. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

   • Blindly chasing price increases due to herd mentality, leading to buying at highs—a common investment mistake for retail investors.

4. DDoS Attack (Distributed Denial of Service Attack)

   • Hackers paralyze exchange or on-chain services through massive fake requests, making trading impossible.

5. Pig Butchering Scam

   • Groups induce users to invest in fake cryptocurrencies through social platforms, eventually reaping funds, similar to traditional financial fraud.

VI. Derivative and Emerging Concepts

1. Metaverse

   • Virtual world ecosystems, with related tokens (e.g., MANA, SAND) representing virtual land or assets.

2. GameFi (Game + Finance)

   • Play-to-earn blockchain games, such as Axie Infinity, where players earn token rewards through gameplay.

3. Layer2

   • Expansion solutions based on main chains, used to improve transaction speed and reduce fees (e.g., Ethereum's Arbitrum).

4. Cross-Chain

   • Interoperability of assets between different blockchains, such as cross-chain transactions via Polkadot or Avalanche.

Term Comparison Table

Chinese Term	English Term	Core Meaning
现货交易	Spot Trading	Direct token buying/selling, cash on delivery, no leverage.
合约交易	Futures Trading	Leveraged trading, long/short positions, high risk (e.g., BTC perpetual futures).
流动性挖矿	Yield Farming	Earning rewards by providing token liquidity (e.g., adding LP tokens on Uniswap).
私募	Private Sale	Early-stage fundraising to institutions/individuals at prices far below public listing.
公募（IDO/ICO）	Public Offering	Public fundraising for retail investors, common on decentralized exchanges (e.g., IDO via DAO).

Warnings and Recommendations

• Cryptocurrency terms often involve high-risk operations—newcomers should understand concepts before investing.

• Beware of scams packaged as "new concepts" (e.g., hyping air coins with "Metaverse" or "Web3").

• China prohibits speculative activities related to virtual currencies; comply with regulatory requirements and choose compliant investment channels.