Hi, my name is Mojca. I am from Slovenia in Europe and I and I work as a student advisor at our Shanghai school.Cryptocurrency in Chinese // 21 Cryptocurrency Names Plus Much More
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.
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Bank | 银行 | yínháng |
| Capital | 资金 | zījīn |
| Cash | 现金 | xiànjīn |
| Credit card | 信用卡 | xìnyòngkǎ |
| Deposit | 存款 | cúnkuǎn |
| Investment | 投资 | tóuzī |
| Investor | 投资者 | tóuzī zhě |
| Exchange | 交易所 | jiāoyìsuǒ |
| Exchange money | 换钱 | huànqián |
| Exchange rate | 汇率 | huìlǜ |
| Finance | 金融 | jīnróng |
| Loan | 借款 | jièkuǎn |
| Mortgage/collateral | 抵押 | dǐyā |
| Mortgage loan | 抵押贷款 | dǐyādàikuǎn |
| Wallet | 钱包 | qiánbāo |
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!
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Compensation plan, reimbursement case | 补偿方案 | bǔcháng fāngàn |
| Decentralization | 去中心化 | qù zhōngxīnhuà |
| Electronic payment system | 电子现金系统 | diànzǐ xiànjīn xìtǒng |
| Escrow | 托管 | tuōguǎn |
| Exchange traded funds | 交易所买卖基金 | jiāoyìsuǒ mǎimài jījīn |
| FIAT Currency | 法币 | fǎbì |
| Inflation | 通货膨胀 | tōnghuò péngzhàng |
| Liquidity pool | 流动池 | liúdòngchí |
| Market maker | 做市商 | zuò shìshāng |
| Market making capital | 做市资金 | zuò shì zījīn |
| Margin trading | 融资融券 | róngzī róngquàn |
| Transaction fees | 手续费 | shǒuxùfèi |
| Working capital | 流动资金 | liúdòng zījīn |
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:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Ethereum (ETH) | 以太坊 | yǐtàifāng |
| Litecoin (LTC) | 莱特币 | láitèbì |
| Cardano (ADA) | 艾达币 | àidábì |
| Polkadot (DOT) | 波卡币 | bōkǎbì |
| Bitcoin cash (BCH) | 比特现金 | bǐtè xiànjīn |
| Stellar (XLM) | 恒星币 | héngxīngbì |
| Dogecoin (DOGE) | 狗狗币 | gǒugǒubì |
| Binance Coin (BNB) | 币安币 | bìānbì |
| Tether (USDT) | 泰达币 | tàidábì |
| Monero (XMR) | 门罗币 | ménluóbì |
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:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Solana (SOL) | 索拉纳 | suǒlānà |
| Avalanche (AVAX) | 雪崩币 | xuěbēngbì |
| Chainlink (LINK) | 链环 | liànhuán |
| Tron (TRX) | 波场币 | bōchǎngbì |
| ZCash (ZEC) | 大零币 | dàlíngbì |
| EOS (EOS) | 柚子币 | yòuzibì |
| Neo (NEO) | 小蚁 | xiǎoyǐ |
| Dash (DASH) | 达世币 | dáshìbì |
| NEM (NEM) | 新经币 | xīnjīngbì |
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:
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| Airdrop | 空投 | kōngtóu |
| ASIC (application-specific integrated circuit) | 特定功能IC | tèdìng gōngnéng IC |
| Bag | 包包 | bāo bāo |
| Bagholder | 包主 | bāo zhǔ |
| Bounty Program | 奖金计划 | jiǎngjīn jìhuà |
| Bug Bounty | 奖金漏洞 | jiǎngjīn lòudòng |
| Chain Split | 链分裂 | liàn fēnliè |
| Coinbase | 挖矿交易 | wākuàng jiāoyì |
| Coin Burn | 烧币 | shāobì |
| Cold Storage | 冷存储 | lěng cúnchú |
| Core developer | Core开发者 | Core kāifāzhě |
| Core team/founding team | 核心团队 | héxīn tuánduì |
| Cryptography | 密码学 | mìmǎxué |
| Dead Cat Bounce | 死猫反弹 | sǐ māo fǎntán |
| Digital token | 数字通证 | shù zì tōng zhèng |
| Dump | 砸盘 | zápán |
| Faucet | 阀门 | fámén |
| Fork | 分叉 | fēnchā |
| Hard Fork | 硬分叉 | yìng fēnchā |
| Hash | 哈希 | hāxī |
| Hash rate | 算力/哈希率 | suànlì/hāxīlǜ |
| Hot Storage | 热存储 | rè cúnchú |
| NFT (non-fungible token) | 非同质化代币 | fēi tóng zhí huà dài bì |
| Optimistic rollup | 乐观卷叠 | lèguān juǎndié |
| Paper wallet | 纸钱包 | zhǐ qiánbāo |
| Peer-to-peer | 点对点 | diǎnduìdiǎn |
| Pickle Finance | 酸黄瓜金融 | suānhuángguā jīnróng |
| Project participants | 项目方 | xiàngmù fāng |
| Project proposals | 项目方案 | xiàngmù fāngàn |
| Pump | 拉盘 | lāpán |
| Repair patch, bug fix | 修补补丁 | xiūbǔ bǔdīng |
| Rollup | 卷叠 | juǎndié |
| Series A financing | A轮融资 | A lúnróngzī |
| Smart contract | 智能合约 | zhìnéng héyuē |
| Soft Fork | 软分叉 | ruǎn fēn chā |
| Time lock | 时间锁 | shíjiān suǒ |
| Unlock | 解锁 | jiěsuǒ |
| Virgin Bitcoin | 原始比特币 | yuánshǐ bǐtè bì |
| White paper | 白皮书 | báipíshū |
| ZK rollup | 零知卷叠 | língzhī juǎndié |
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.
Cryptocurrency in Chinese – FAQs
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.
Is cryptocurrency illegal in China?
Yes, as of September 2021 cryptocurrency in China is illegal.
Does China have cryptocurrency?
China made cryptocurrency illegal in 2021, however they have launched their own digital currency called the digital yuan.
Unlike normal cryptocurrencies, the digital yuan is controlled and issued by the Bank of China.
What is Bitcoin in Chinese?
Bitcoin in Chinese is 比特币 bǐtèbì
What is cryptocurrency in Chinese?
Cryptocurrency in Chinese is 加密货币 jiāmì huòbì
What is altcoin in Chinese?
Altcoin in Chinese is 山寨币 shānzhàibì
What is digital currency in Chinese?
Digital currency in Chinese is 数码货币 shùmǎhuòbì
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