About

Jeet is an acronym and slang term used in cryptocurrency circles that translates to "Just Early Exist Trader," meaning crypto investors who panic and sell their holdings at the slightest dip in value, a risk-averse practice often looked down upon by many in crypto trading. The term is also used in verb form to describe selling one's holdings at a very low profit. The acronym is often confused with and sometimes used interchangeably with the word pajeet, which is an ethnic slur against Indians. This dual meaning of the term "jeet" is thus also used to describe risk-averse and inexperienced Indian crypto traders.

Origin

The term "jeet" gained traction on 4chan's /biz/ board in the early 2020s as a means to describe low-effort crypto scams promoted by "anon" developers. Many 4channers described such posters as "jeets," implying that the project and their backers are a result of bots launched from India.

An early example of the term "jeet" being used to describe "pump and dump" style investing is a series of replies to a thread on /biz/ from January 6th, 2019.^[11]

According to Wiktionary,^[1] some of the earliest instances of the phrase "jeet" being used in a context where the term describes risk-averse investors who exit at the earliest indication of a downturn took place on several Reddit cryptocurrency and trading forums.

A January 30th, 2022, comment by Redditor^[2] /u/SpecificSalamander19 on the subreddit /r/AllCryptoBets uses the term, which read, "This project has the potential to fly […] This is not a project for the jeets though." On September 27th, an unknown Redditor^[3] posted to /u/WallStreetBetsCrypto, writing, "which dumb jeets like yourself paid for by shorting and swing trading in the negative."

Spread

On October 2nd, 2023, Medium^[4] user @moontoberdev posted a short article about the term "Jeet" as used to describe panic sellers who trade cryptocurrencies.

On February 5th, 2024, Urban Dictionary^[5] user Tegridy described the term "Jeet" as being used to describe "someone who sells pretty much no matter what […] known for selling at a profit so low that it doesn't even cover the tax, and doing so for no reason." The user posits the origin of the term could be the ethnic slur pajeet.

On February 25th, 2024, X^[6] user @Floppy_Ether made a post that read, "Let's settle this. JEET is 'Just Exit Early Trader'. They enter a trade only to exit."

In March 2024, several Indian crypto traders began discussing the use of the term "jeet" in crypto circles, equating it with the ethnic slur "pajeet" and discouraging the use of the term. However, these posts saw pushback from other crypto traders who defined the term as "Just Early Exit Trading."

X^[7][8][9] users @wizardofsoho, @wabdoteth and @iamDCinvestor made posts about the use of the word "jeet" in crypto circles on March 7th, March 23rd and March 26th, respectively.

On August 14th, 2024, rapper 6ix9ine posted a tweet to X^[10] that read, "YO FOR REAL WHAT IS A JEET." The post was part of a series of crypto-related posts made by the rapper in the fall of 2024.

Search Interest

External References