Crypto glossary
Number go up
Number go up (NGU) is crypto slang mocking, and celebrating, the focus on rising prices, and shorthand for bitcoin's supply-and-demand thesis.
The phrase deliberately sounds simple-minded. Used ironically, it pokes fun at investors who care about nothing except the price of their tokens, whatever the technology or project. NGU technology, a joke label for bitcoin, suggests that a rising price is itself the product that attracts more users and more security.
Behind the joke is an argument some bitcoin supporters make seriously. With a fixed supply and periodic halvings, they say, growing demand must push the price up over time, which brings more attention, more miners and more holders in a reinforcing loop. The phrase is also used to describe protocols whose token design aims mainly at making the price rise, through buybacks, burns or locked supply.
Critics see number go up as a summary of what is wrong with crypto speculation: projects judged only by price, little attention to real use and a culture that rewards hype. Prices that only go up rarely stay that way, and long bear markets regularly test the idea.
Example
After bitcoin sets a new all-time high, a popular account posts a single line, number go up, and thousands of users reply with the same phrase and rocket emojis.