Crypto glossary
Copium
Copium is slang, blending cope and opium, for the comforting delusions investors tell themselves after losses, like insisting a dead token will recover.
The word imagines a drug that people inhale to cope with bad news. In crypto it is used for holders who explain every drop as manipulation or a shakeout, cite distant price targets for tokens that have lost most of their value or claim a failed project is about to stage a comeback. Memes show characters wearing oxygen masks labelled copium.
Copium is often contrasted with hopium, which is unrealistic optimism before or during a move, while copium comes after the damage is done. Both describe emotional rather than analytical thinking, and both are common in bear markets when communities try to keep morale up.
Psychologically, the joke captures loss aversion and the sunk-cost fallacy: admitting a loss feels worse than holding on, so investors keep a losing position longer than any new analysis would justify. Asking whether one would buy the asset today at the current price is a common test for spotting copium.
Example
A token down 95% from its peak keeps losing value, but its Telegram group insists that a big partnership will send it back to its highs. Outsiders call the channel a copium den.