Cryptocurrency in Chinese // 89 Words & Coins You Need To Know

Q: What is China's cryptocurrency called?

China's cryptocurrency is called "The digital yuan" or 数字人民币 shùzì rénmínbì , it's also called the e-yuan or the e-CNY.

Q: Is cryptocurrency illegal in China?

Yes, as of September 2021 cryptocurrency in China is illegal.

Q: What is Bitcoin in Chinese?

Bitcoin in Chinese is 比特币 bǐtèbì

Q: What is cryptocurrency in Chinese?

Cryptocurrency in Chinese is 加密货币 jiāmì huòbì

Q: What is altcoin in Chinese?

Altcoin in Chinese is 山寨币 shānzhàibì

Q: What is digital currency in Chinese?

Digital currency in Chinese is 数码货币 shùmǎhuòbì

Cryptocurrency in Chinese // All the Vocab You Need

Here at LTL we always strive to bring you any new hot topics that emerge which is why today we’ll be talking all about cryptocurrency in Chinese.

So let’s start with the basics.

What is cryptocurrency in Chinese?

Cryptocurrency = 加密货币 jiāmì huòbì

This words is made up of the characters for encrypt ( 加密 jiāmì) and currency (货币 huòbì).

If you want to break it down even further the word encrypt literally means “add” ( 加 jiā ) “secret/confidential” ( 密 mì) which really makes a lot of sense when you think about what encryption actually does.

The word currency literally means “money/goods” ( 货 huò) “coin” ( 币 bì), again makes perfect sense!

Cryptocurrency in Chinese | General Finance Vocab
Cryptocurrency in Chinese | Cryptocurrency Names
Cryptocurrency in Chinese | Cryptocurrency Specific Vocab
Cryptocurrency in Chinese | Cryptocurrency in China

Cryptocurrency in Chinese | General Finance Vocab

Before we delve into the more complicated world of cryptocurrency in Chinese let’s have a look at some general finance vocab to start us off.

First things first, we have some basic banking vocabulary.

Chinese	Pinyin	English
银行	yínháng	Bank
资金	zījīn	Capital
现金	xiànjīn	Cash
信用卡	xìnyòngkǎ	Credit card
存款	cúnkuǎn	Deposit
投资	tóuzī	Investment
投资者	tóuzī zhě	Investor
交易所	jiāoyìsuǒ	Exchange
换钱	huànqián	Exchange money
汇率	huìlǜ	Exchange rate
金融	jīnróng	Finance
借款	jièkuǎn	Loan
抵押	dǐyā	Mortgage/collateral
抵押贷款	dǐyādàikuǎn	Mortgage loan
钱包	qiánbāo	Wallet

With the basics out the way let’s move onto some more complicated finance vocab that’s related to cryptocurrency in Chinese.

Starting with digital currency.

There are actually a few different ways to say digital currency in Chinese in mainland China it’s called either 数字货币 shùzìhuòbì or 数码货币 shùmǎhuòbì.
Whereas in Taiwan it’s slightly different and is called 数位货币 shùwèihuòbì.

数字 shùzì, 数码 shùmǎ and 数位 shùwèi are all just different ways to say digit in Chinese.

Now, how about some more complicated financial vocab!

Chinese	Pinyin	English
补偿方案	bǔcháng fāngàn	Compensation plan, reimbursement case
去中心化	qù zhōngxīnhuà	Decentralization
电子现金系统	diànzǐ xiànjīn xìtǒng	Electronic payment system
托管	tuōguǎn	Escrow
交易所买卖基金	jiāoyìsuǒ mǎimài jījīn	Exchange traded funds
法币	fǎbì	FIAT Currency
通货膨胀	tōnghuò péngzhàng	Inflation
流动池	liúdòngchí	Liquidity pool
做市商	zuò shìshāng	Market maker
做市资金	zuò shì zījīn	Market making capital
融资融券	róngzī róngquàn	Margin trading
手续费	shǒuxùfèi	Transaction fees
流动资金	liúdòng zījīn	Working capital

Cryptocurrency Names in Chinese

Moving onto the next section in our complete guide to cryptocurrency in Chinese we have the different cryptocurrency names in Chinese.

First up has to of course be the coin that started it all.

Bitcoin 比特币 bǐtèbì.

As you can probably tell, this is a transliteration of “bit” with “coin” ( 币 bì) added.

However, there is another name for bitcoin in Chinese which is a translation of bitcoin instead: 位元币 wèiyuánbì.

The character 位 wèi is a classifier for binary bits.

It’s very rare to see this translation though, the most commonly used name by far is 比特币 bǐtèbì.

Following on from bitcoin we of course have altcoin which in Chinese is 山寨币 shānzhàibì.

山寨 shānzhài literally means “mountain” “stronghold”, but it has become a humorous term for counterfeit or copycat in Chinese.

For example counterfeit goods can be called 山寨货 shānzhàihuò.

So the name for altcoin in Chinese is “counterfeit coin”, as all altcoins are all technically copies of bitcoin that makes sense!

Originally altcoin was actually called 竞争币 jìngzhēng bì in Chinese which translates to “competition coin”, again a very literal translation of what altcoin is.

Anyone familiar with cryptocurrency will also know that there are also some slang terms within that, so what is the Chinese for some of those?

Well, shitcoin in Chinese has two (much more PC) translations: 空气币 kōngqìbì and 垃圾币 lājī bì.

These literally translate to “air” coin and “rubbish” coin.

Opposite to that we have blue chip coin which is 主流币 zhǔliúbì, meaning “mainstream” coin.

Now, let’s have a look at 10 of the most common altcoin cryptocurrencies:

Chinese	Pinyin	English
以太坊	yǐtàifāng	Ethereum (ETH)
莱特币	láitèbì	Litecoin (LTC)
艾达币	àidábì	Cardano (ADA)
波卡币	bōkǎbì	Polkadot (DOT)
比特现金	bǐtè xiànjīn	Bitcoin cash (BCH)
恒星币	héngxīngbì	Stellar (XLM)
狗狗币	gǒugǒubì	Dogecoin (DOGE)
币安币	bìānbì	Binance Coin (BNB)
泰达币	tàidábì	Tether (USDT)
门罗币	ménluóbì	Monero (XMR)

Our personal favourite from that list has to of course be Dogecoin ( 狗狗币 gǒugǒubì) because it is based off one of the BEST memes ever.

The story of it starting off as a joke currency and then becoming one of the biggest cryptocurrencies is also pretty entertaining we have to say.

It really shows how crazy the world of cryptocurrency can be!

This coin is so popular it’s even sparked off some copycat coins such as the Shiba Inu (SHIB) 柴犬币 cháiquǎnbì coin which was launched in 2020.

Here are a few other common cryptocurrencies also worth mentioning:

Chinese	Pinyin	English
索拉纳	suǒlānà	Solana (SOL)
雪崩币	xuěbēngbì	Avalanche (AVAX)
链环	liànhuán	Chainlink (LINK)
波场币	bōchǎngbì	Tron (TRX)
大零币	dàlíngbì	ZCash (ZEC)
柚子币	yòuzibì	EOS (EOS)
小蚁	xiǎoyǐ	Neo (NEO)
达世币	dáshìbì	Dash (DASH)
新经币	xīnjīngbì	NEM (NEM)

Cryptocurrency in Chinese – Crypto Specific Vocab

With cryptocurrency names all covered it’s time for the last section where we’ll really delve into super specific cryptocurrency in Chinese vocab.

Let’s start off with the name that started it all, Satoshi Nakamoto.

In Chinese Satoshi Nakamoto is referred to as 中本聪 zhōng běn cōng, this name is based off the name used by some Japanese media ( 中本哲史 Nakamoto Tetsushi).

At the heart of cryptocurrency is of course blockchain technology, so let’s have a look at some words related to that:

Blockchain 区块链 qūkuàiliàn
Blockchain technology 区块链技术 = qūkuàiliàn jìshù
Create/find a block 打个包 dǎ gè bāo
Block reward 打包奖励 dǎ bāo jiǎng lì
Genesis Block 创世区块 chuàng shì qū kuài

Another crucial aspect of cryptocurrency is mining and in Chinese they also use the word for mining: 挖矿 wākuàng, which means “dig” ( 挖 wā) “mine” ( 矿 kuàng).

Then a miner is simply 矿工 kuànggōng (mine worker), mining machines are 矿机 kuàng jī (mine machine) and mining pool is 矿池 kuàng chí (mine pool).

All very straightforward stuff, right?!

That is the essential cryptocurrency terms in Chinese covered, so are you ready to really get technical?

Here is all the specific vocabulary you’ll need:

Chinese	Pinyin	English
空投	kōngtóu	Airdrop
特定功能IC	tèdìng gōngnéng IC	ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit)
包包	bāo bāo	Bag
包主	bāo zhǔ	Bagholder
奖金计划	jiǎngjīn jìhuà	Bounty Program
奖金漏洞	jiǎngjīn lòudòng	Bug Bounty
链分裂	liàn fēnliè	Chain Split
挖矿交易	wākuàng jiāoyì	Coinbase
烧币	shāobì	Coin Burn
冷存储	lěng cúnchú	Cold Storage
Core开发者	Core kāifāzhě	Core developer
核心团队	héxīn tuánduì	Core team/founding team
密码学	mìmǎxué	Cryptography
死猫反弹	sǐ māo fǎntán	Dead Cat Bounce
数字通证	shù zì tōng zhèng	Digital token
砸盘	zápán	Dump
阀门	fámén	Faucet
分叉	fēnchā	Fork
硬分叉	yìng fēnchā	Hard Fork
哈希	hāxī	Hash
算力/哈希率	suànlì/hāxīlǜ	Hash rate
热存储	rè cúnchú	Hot Storage
非同质化代币	fēi tóng zhí huà dài bì	NFT (non-fungible token)
乐观卷叠	lèguān juǎndié	Optimistic rollup
纸钱包	zhǐ qiánbāo	Paper wallet
点对点	diǎnduìdiǎn	Peer-to-peer
酸黄瓜金融	suānhuángguā jīnróng	Pickle Finance
项目方	xiàngmù fāng	Project participants
项目方案	xiàngmù fāngàn	Project proposals
拉盘	lāpán	Pump
修补补丁	xiūbǔ bǔdīng	Repair patch, bug fix
卷叠	juǎndié	Rollup
A轮融资	A lúnróngzī	Series A financing
智能合约	zhìnéng héyuē	Smart contract
软分叉	ruǎn fēn chā	Soft Fork
时间锁	shíjiān suǒ	Time lock
解锁	jiěsuǒ	Unlock
原始比特币	yuánshǐ bǐtè bì	Virgin Bitcoin
白皮书	báipíshū	White paper
零知卷叠	língzhī juǎndié	ZK rollup

Cryptocurrency in China

If you keep up to date with cryptocurrency news, you should already know that in September 2021 China completely banned cryptocurrencies.

It had already been cracking down on cryptocurrencies since 2019 when trading cryptocurrency was officially banned.

So if you’ve got some cryptocurrency lying around you won’t be able to spend it on Taobao anytime soon.

As well as China there are eight other countries where cryptocurrencies are banned:

Egypt
Iraq
Qatar
Oman
Morocco
Algeria
Tunisia
Bangladesh

So why did China ban it?

Well, previously China had been a leader in mining for cryptocurrencies and the government said it was concerned over the environmental implications of this.

They also stated that there were concerns over digital currency being used for fraud and money laundering.

However, China have actually launched their own digital yuan currency ( 数字人民币 shùzì rénmínbì).

Unlike other cryptocurrencies it’s controlled and issued by the central bank.

Currently the digital yuan app is still being tested, it’s available for download, however only certain users living in certain “pilot cities”.

Compared to other countries, China is already well on the way towards becoming a cashless society, just look at how widely WeChat Pay and Alipay are used.
It will be interesting to see where this goes in the future and whether more countries will follow China’s lead and put more restrictions on cryptocurrencies.

Did you find our guide to Crypto in Chinese useful? Drop us a comment below and tell us what you thought.