Crypto glossary

The words you meet in memecoins and token reports, explained in one or two sentences.

Airdrop: Tokens sent to wallets for free. Real airdrops exist, but unknown tokens that show up in your wallet are often bait for drainer sites.
Bonding curve: A formula that sets a token's price based on how many tokens have been bought. Used by launchpads before a token gets a normal liquidity pool.
Bundled launch: A launch where the creator buys from many wallets in the same block, to hide how much of the supply they control.
Contract address (CA): The unique address of a token. Names and tickers can be copied; the address cannot. Always check the address, not the name.
Delegate: An address allowed to move tokens from your token account. A permanent delegate on Token-2022 can do it at any time.
DEX: Decentralized exchange: a smart contract where tokens are swapped against a liquidity pool, without a company in the middle.
Drainer: A malicious site or script that tricks you into signing a transaction that transfers your tokens to the attacker.
DYOR: Do your own research. A reminder that tools, influencers and reports help, but the decision and the risk are yours.
Freeze authority: A permission on a Solana token that lets its holder freeze any wallet's tokens. Active on a memecoin, it is a serious red flag.
Graduation: The moment a token on a bonding curve raises enough to move its liquidity to a regular pool.
Holder concentration: How much of the supply is held by the largest wallets. High concentration means a few sellers can crash the price.
Honeypot: A token you can buy but cannot sell, or can only sell at a huge loss.
Liquidity: The funds in a pool that let you buy and sell a token. Low liquidity means big price moves on small trades.
LP burn / lock: Destroying or locking the liquidity pool tokens so the liquidity cannot be withdrawn by the creator.
Market cap: Price multiplied by supply. On thin liquidity it can look large while only a small amount could actually be sold.
Memecoin: A token driven by community, culture and jokes rather than a product. Highly volatile and a frequent target for scams.
Mint authority: A permission that lets its holder create new tokens. If it is still active, your share can be diluted at any time.
Phishing: Fake sites, messages or accounts that imitate real ones to steal your seed phrase or make you sign malicious transactions.
Rug pull: A scam where the creators remove liquidity or dump their tokens, leaving holders with a token worth almost nothing.
Seed phrase: The 12 or 24 words that control a wallet. Whoever has them owns the funds. Never share them.
Slippage: The difference between the expected price and the price you actually get. High slippage settings can be exploited by bots.
Sniper bot: A bot that buys a token in the first seconds after launch, often to sell on later buyers.
Token-2022: A newer Solana token program with extensions such as transfer fees, transfer hooks and permanent delegates. Useful features, but they can also be abused.
Whale: A wallet holding or moving a large amount of a token. Whale sells can move the price sharply.

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Educational content. It is not financial advice nor an invitation to buy or sell any crypto-asset. Crypto-assets are highly risky: you can lose all the money you put in. DYOR.