Just entered the crypto world and feel lost in a sea of strange terms? Relax, that's completely normal. FOMO, HODL, ATH, altcoins, meme coins... the community uses these terms all the time, especially when chatting on Discord or Telegram. You’ve probably also seen that “GM” (good morning) everyone send first thing in the morning on social media. It’s basically the crypto community’s friendly way of saying hi.

Let me try to organize this in a way that makes sense. First, there are the terms you’ll hear every day: FOMO is that fear of missing out on an opportunity, HODL is holding your coins without selling (ironically started as a typo), and ATH means the highest price a coin has ever reached. There’s also Bear Market (market in decline) versus Bull Market (market on the rise), and whales (whale) are the guys with a lot of money invested.

Now, about the categories of coins. Altcoins are basically everything that’s not Bitcoin. Ethereum, Solana, Cardano... all are altcoins. They came about because people wanted to improve Bitcoin or add features it didn’t have. Ethereum, for example, introduced smart contracts, opening up a world of possibilities.

But not all altcoins are good. There are shitcoins, which are coins with no real value, no innovation, just speculative hype. Lack of transparency, manipulation risks—things you want to avoid.

Then there are meme coins, which are created based on internet memes. Dogecoin is the classic example; it started as a joke but gained a real community. Elon Musk even publicly supported it, and at some point, some stores began accepting it as payment. It’s extremely volatile, but it’s more about community and online sentiment than technical fundamentals.

And then there are air coins, which are basically castles in the sand. No real backing, no practical use, just hype and manipulation. They disappear quickly when the market cools down.

The important thing is: before investing money in anything, do your research. Understand the technology, know the team, assess the risks. There are many more terms to learn (TVL, APY, DAO, Layer 2...), but the main thing is not to get carried away by hype. Most beginners fall into the FOMO trap and end up with shitcoins or air coins. Don’t be that guy.