NGMI and WAGMI
 Image: original illustration, memecoin.wiki | |
| part of speech | acronyms, used as interjections and adjectives |
|---|---|
| scene | crypto Twitter, NFT communities, 4chan fitness origin |
Acronyms for "not gonna make it" and "we're all gonna make it," the paired verdicts of failure and collective optimism inherited from bodybuilding culture.
NGMI and WAGMI are opposed acronyms that deliver verdicts on traders, projects, and behavior. NGMI, "not gonna make it," declares that a person or token is doomed: sold too early, bought the top, or failed to understand the game. WAGMI, "we're all gonna make it," is the collective rallying cry, affirming that a community holding together will be rewarded. Both are used as standalone replies, hashtags, and adjectives, and both compress an entire moral framework about conviction into four letters.
Origin
The phrases descend from the bodybuilding motivational culture of Aziz "Zyzz" Shavershian, a Russian Australian bodybuilder who popularized "we're all gonna make it" on 4chan's fitness board before his death in 2011, a lineage documented by Know Your Meme and reported by Vice. The phrase and its negative twin spread through imageboard and Reddit communities, crossed into retail trading culture around the 2021 GameStop episode, and became ubiquitous during the NFT boom of 2021, when WAGMI served as a greeting, a toast, and a price floor prayer. Usage carried directly into meme coin communities afterward.
Usage
In the trenches NGMI is the standard verdict on a jeet who sold a runner early, a paper hands and diamond hands failure, or anyone asking an obviously answerable question. It is also self applied after a fumble. WAGMI appears at moments of collective conviction, though by the mid 2020s its unironic use had declined; the 2022 bear market made the phrase a punchline, and later usage is often knowing or nostalgic. Commentators have noted the tension between WAGMI's communal promise and the pvp reality of meme coin trading, where one wallet's win is another's exit liquidity. The derivative "wagmi" lowercase aesthetic also spawned tokens, merchandise, and project names across several chains.
References
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