Solana & Crypto Glossary

Free distribution of cryptocurrency tokens to wallet addresses, often used for marketing or community building.

Airdrop farming is the practice of strategically interacting with blockchain projects to maximize eligibility for multiple airdrop rewards. It involves identifying potential airdrops, meeting participation criteria, and optimizing wallet activity to increase the chances of receiving free tokens.

Altcoins are all cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoin, functioning as alternatives that bring innovation, unique features, and broader utility to the blockchain ecosystem, including Solana.

Automated Market Makers (AMMs) are decentralized protocols that allow users to trade cryptocurrencies directly from their wallets by using liquidity pools instead of traditional order books, facilitating fast and permissionless exchange of tokens on Solana.

Apeing is the act of quickly and impulsively investing significant capital into a new or trending cryptocurrency—especially meme coins or NFT projects—without conducting deep research or risk assessment, driven often by FOMO and hype. On Solana, apeing is linked to the rapid trading of high-risk meme tokens and NFTs, using platforms purpose-built for this type of speculative activity.

Arbitrage is a trading strategy that exploits price differences for the same asset across different markets or exchanges—on Solana, arbitrageurs rapidly buy and sell crypto assets (often using bots or aggregators) across DEXs and CEXs to lock in risk-free profits. This strategy increases market efficiency and liquidity but is highly competitive and requires fast execution.

ATH, or All-Time High, marks the highest recorded price, market cap, or value ever reached by an asset—such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs, or entire portfolios—since its launch. Tracking ATH is a core metric for measuring growth, trends, and potential in Solana assets and blockchain markets.

ATL, or All-Time Low, represents the lowest price, value, or market capitalization an asset—such as a cryptocurrency, NFT, or portfolio—has ever reached since its inception. Monitoring ATL helps traders, investors, and analysts identify market bottoms, gauge sentiment shifts, and pinpoint undervalued opportunities in the Solana ecosystem.

In crypto, a "bag" refers to an individual’s holding or portfolio of one or more tokens—especially sizable or long-term positions in specific coins or assets. On Solana, managing and optimizing your bag (such as SOL, meme coins, or airdrop assets) is fundamental to portfolio growth, trading, and DeFi strategies.

A bagholder is a crypto investor or trader who continues to hold significant amounts of a token or NFT, often with unrealized losses, after a substantial price drop or project decline. This term—sometimes humorous, sometimes cautionary—is especially relevant on Solana during bear cycles or failed meme coin and NFT launches.

A bear market is an extended period of falling prices, negative sentiment, and declining trading activity across crypto assets such as SOL, meme coins, and NFTs. In the Solana and broader crypto ecosystems, bear markets test investor conviction, demand risk management, and often precede the next phase of innovation or recovery.

A benchmark is a standard or reference point used to measure, compare, or evaluate the performance of assets, protocols, trading bots, portfolios, or technological innovations within the Solana ecosystem. Benchmarks help users, developers, and investors make data-driven decisions by providing clear, objective comparison metrics against the broader market or direct competitors.

Bitcoin Halving is a pre-programmed event in the Bitcoin blockchain protocol that reduces the block reward for miners by 50%, thereby slowing the creation of new bitcoins and controlling inflation. This event occurs approximately every four years and has significant economic and market implications for both Bitcoin and the broader crypto ecosystem.

A distributed ledger technology that maintains a continuously growing list of records secured from tampering and revision.

Borrowing in the context of decentralized finance (DeFi), including on Solana, refers to obtaining assets or tokens by providing collateral, typically through lending protocols or decentralized applications (dApps). This process enables users to access liquidity without selling their holdings, facilitating a wide range of trading and investment strategies.

A Bridge in the blockchain ecosystem is a protocol or service that enables the transfer of tokens and data between different blockchains, such as moving assets from Ethereum to Solana, making interoperability and cross-chain strategies seamless for users and developers.

BTDF, or "Buy The Dip Fren," is a popular crypto trading acronym and meme originating in the Solana community, encouraging users to take advantage of price corrections by buying assets when they decrease in value.

A bull market is a financial market condition characterized by sustained price increases, strong investor confidence, and widespread optimism. In the context of crypto and Solana, it often results in higher trading volumes, increased participation, and new project launches.

"Burn" refers to the process of permanently removing tokens from circulation, making them unusable and effectively reducing the total supply. On Solana and other blockchains, burning is used to control inflation, increase scarcity, or as part of specific tokenomics strategies.

A coin is a type of cryptocurrency that operates on its own native blockchain, serving as a digital currency or a foundational asset for its ecosystem—distinct from tokens, which are built on top of existing blockchains like Solana.

A cold wallet is a type of crypto wallet that stores private keys completely offline, making it one of the most secure ways to protect digital assets like SOL and NFTs from hacks and online threats on the Solana blockchain.

Cross-chain refers to the technology and protocols that enable interoperability and asset transfers between different blockchains, such as Solana, Ethereum, and BNB Chain. This connectivity is crucial for expanding DeFi, trading, and NFT opportunities across multiple blockchain networks.

A DAO is a blockchain-based organization governed by smart contracts and community voting rather than centralized leadership, enabling transparent, automated, and member-driven decision-making. On Solana, DAOs are essential for managing projects, treasuries, and protocols in a fully decentralized way.

A dApp, or decentralized application, is a software program that runs on a blockchain like Solana, uses smart contracts for its backend logic, and operates without a central authority, allowing for trustless, transparent, and censorship-resistant user experiences.

Decentralized Exchange - a platform for trading cryptocurrencies without a central authority.

Escrow is a secure, intermediary mechanism—often established via smart contracts on Solana—that temporarily holds funds or assets during a transaction until specific, predetermined conditions are met, ensuring trustless exchanges between parties.

FOMO, or Fear Of Missing Out, is a psychological phenomenon where traders or investors rush to buy assets—often driven by hype, rapid price increases, or social sentiment—out of anxiety that they’ll miss potential profits or opportunities, especially prevalent within fast-moving Solana markets.

FUD stands for "Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt"—a popular crypto slang used to describe rumors, pessimistic information, or negative sentiment, often spread intentionally to sway the market, shake trader confidence, or influence asset prices, including in the Solana ecosystem.

A gas fee is the cost users pay to process and confirm transactions on a blockchain; on Solana, gas fees are exceptionally low, making the network ideal for fast and affordable trading, DeFi, and decentralized application (dApp) usage.

A hodler is someone who buys and keeps their cryptocurrency long-term, regardless of market fluctuations—demonstrating patience and conviction, especially in the fast-moving Solana and broader blockchain markets.

Impermanent loss is the temporary reduction in value experienced by liquidity providers in automated market makers (AMMs) like those on Solana when the price of deposited tokens diverges compared to simply holding the assets, often resolving partially or fully when token prices return to initial ratios.

Jupiter is Solana’s premier decentralized exchange (DEX) aggregator, offering the deepest liquidity, optimized route discovery, and advanced trading features such as limit orders, dollar-cost averaging (DCA), perpetuals, and cross-chain swaps—empowering both individual and institutional users with the best price execution and seamless experience across the Solana ecosystem.

KYC is an identity verification process required by financial institutions and many blockchain platforms—including leading Solana dApps and DeFi protocols—to ensure regulatory compliance, prevent fraud, and foster a secure, trust-based digital ecosystem while often leveraging privacy-preserving verification technologies.

Liquid staking is a DeFi innovation that allows users to stake their SOL or other tokens in securing the blockchain while receiving tradable, yield-bearing tokens in return. This lets users earn staking rewards and retain liquidity to participate in other DeFi activities on Solana.

A liquidity pool is a decentralized pool of digital assets locked in a smart contract that enables instant token swaps, lending, and yield generation on platforms like Solana. Liquidity pools form the foundation of most DeFi protocols by enabling automated trading without the need for order books or centralized market makers.

Minting is the process of creating new digital assets—such as NFTs or tokens—on a blockchain like Solana. It involves recording unique or fungible objects on-chain, making them tradable, verifiable, and immutable while attributing authenticity and ownership to their creators.

A “moonbag” is a crypto slang term used in the Solana and broader crypto communities to describe a small portion of tokens or coins that a trader keeps after selling the majority of their position, with the hope that the remaining amount will significantly increase (or “moon”) in value in the future.

A node is a computer or device connected to a blockchain network—like Solana—that participates in validating, relaying, and recording transactions. Nodes are fundamental for maintaining the network’s security, decentralization, and data integrity.

A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) is a unique, indivisible digital asset stored on the blockchain—most commonly used to represent ownership of art, collectibles, music, tickets, and in-game items—distinguished by its exclusive metadata, provenance, and verifiable authenticity. On Solana, NFTs are fast, affordable, and support broad creative, gaming, and community use cases.

An oracle is a decentralized service that securely bridges blockchain smart contracts with off-chain, real-world data, enabling Solana dApps to access external information (like asset prices, random values, or event outcomes) in a trusted and tamper-proof way—powering DeFi, NFTs, prediction markets, and more.

"Paper hands" is a crypto slang used to describe someone who quickly sells their assets at the first sign of price drops or volatility, often missing out on potential long-term gains. In the Solana community, the term is mostly used to highlight the lack of resolve to hold onto positions during market swings.

Proof of History (PoH) is Solana’s groundbreaking consensus innovation—a cryptographic clock that timestamps transactions, significantly speeding up validation and improving scalability by establishing a verifiable order of events before executing the core security consensus.

Proof of Stake (PoS) is a consensus mechanism used by blockchains like Solana, where validators are selected to confirm transactions and produce new blocks based on the amount of tokens they stake, promoting network security, energy efficiency, and decentralization.

A query transaction on Solana refers to the process or method by which users, developers, or analytics platforms request information about specific blockchain transactions, event histories, or account activities—enabling real-time tracking, reporting, and in-depth analysis essential for trading, compliance, and dApp development.

A rug pull is a type of cryptocurrency scam where project creators intentionally withdraw liquidity or abandon the project, leaving investors with worthless tokens. This deceptive tactic is especially prevalent in DeFi and on-chain token launches on Solana, making due diligence and the use of detection tools critical for user protection.

Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual executed price, often occurring in volatile or low-liquidity markets. In Solana DeFi, managing slippage is crucial for minimizing trading losses during swaps or large orders on decentralized exchanges (DEXs).

A smart contract is a self-executing program on a blockchain like Solana that automatically enforces, verifies, and executes agreements and logic without the need for intermediaries. Smart contracts are foundational for powering DeFi, NFTs, DAOs, and many decentralized applications (dApps).

A smart contract audit is a comprehensive security review conducted by specialized experts or firms to identify bugs, vulnerabilities, or logic flaws in a blockchain program before or after deployment. On Solana, audits are vital to ensure the reliability, safety, and trustworthiness of DeFi protocols, dApps, and NFT projects.

Sniper bots are automated trading programs designed to execute trades at very high speeds during critical market events—like token launches or NFT mints—on blockchains such as Solana. They aim to secure assets faster than manual traders, often giving their users a significant advantage.

Sniper Mode is a specialized trading feature or setting used by traders and bots to target high-speed buying or action the instant a new token, NFT mint, or liquidity event goes live—maximizing the chance of securing assets before the general public on Solana and other blockchains.

The native cryptocurrency of the Solana blockchain, used for transactions and staking.

A Solana cluster is a collection of computers (nodes) that together run the Solana software and form a decentralized, synchronized, and secure network capable of validating transactions and maintaining a global ledger.

The Solana ecosystem encompasses the complete network of projects, protocols, tools, developers, users, and communities built on and around the Solana blockchain. It includes DeFi, NFTs, gaming, infrastructure, DAOs, wallets, and cross-chain solutions, making Solana one of the most dynamic environments in Web3.

A stablecoin is a type of cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value by pegging its price to a reserve asset—such as the US dollar or other fiat currency—making it a critical tool for payments, trading, and DeFi activities in the Solana ecosystem.

A stake pool is a decentralized protocol that enables users to collectively delegate and manage their SOL staking across multiple validators, optimizing rewards, diversification, and operational efficiency on the Solana blockchain.

Staking is the process of locking up SOL or other tokens on the Solana blockchain to help secure the network and earn rewards. Staking is essential for decentralized network security, passive income generation, and is a foundation of Solana’s Proof of Stake mechanism.

Token burn refers to the process of permanently removing tokens from circulation by sending them to an unspendable address, effectively reducing the total supply and impacting the tokenomics and scarcity within ecosystems like Solana.

Tokenomics—short for "token economics"—refers to the design, distribution, supply dynamics, and incentive structures that dictate how a token works within a blockchain ecosystem such as Solana, shaping its value, use cases, and community engagement.

TPS, or Transactions Per Second, is the key performance metric quantifying how many transactions a blockchain network like Solana can process each second. High TPS reflects superior scalability and speed, making Solana ideal for high-frequency trading, DeFi, gaming, and large-scale dApp activity.

Transaction finality refers to the moment when a blockchain transaction is considered irreversible, permanently recorded, and immune to reversion or alteration within the network.

A utility token is a type of blockchain-based digital asset designed to provide access, functionality, or special privileges within a specific decentralized application or platform—often powering key operations, rewards, and engagement within Solana’s dApps, DeFi protocols, and NFT projects.

A validator node is a specialized computer running advanced software that confirms transactions, produces blocks, and secures the Solana blockchain through a Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Validator nodes are essential for decentralization, network speed, integrity, and scalability on Solana.

Vaporware refers to a software product—often in the blockchain and crypto ecosystem—that is announced and promoted but never actually developed, released, or made functional, often leading to loss of trust and potential financial risk for users.

WAGMI—short for “We’re All Going to Make It”—is a motivational rallying cry and meme used in crypto communities, including Solana, to foster positivity, solidarity, and belief in collective growth, especially during volatile market conditions.

Software or hardware that stores private keys and allows users to interact with blockchain networks.

A wrapped token is a digital asset representing another cryptocurrency, typically on a different blockchain, enabling interoperability and wider usage within various DeFi ecosystems. Wrapped tokens preserve the value of the original asset while allowing it to be used on platforms it was not originally designed for.

Yield farming is a decentralized finance (DeFi) strategy where users provide liquidity to protocols—such as Solana-based DEXs and lending platforms—in order to earn rewards, which can include trading fees, governance tokens, and airdropped assets. It is central to maximizing returns in the DeFi ecosystem but carries specific risks tied to volatility and smart contracts.

A zero confirmation transaction is a transaction that’s been sent but hasn’t yet been confirmed on the blockchain, meaning it’s still pending.