Halloween Costumes for Broke Crypto Traders

These easy (and affordable!) costumes are perfect for anyone short on time and cash.

AccessTimeIconOct 27, 2022 at 4:37 p.m. UTC
Updated Mar 6, 2023 at 3:02 p.m. UTC
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Halloween is fast approaching, and if you’re like me you’ve put off coming up with a costume idea. Fear not!

CoinDesk has you covered with a list of crypto-themed outfits you can put together with stuff lying around your house.

The bear market has been a blessing, offering a convenient excuse for why you didn't purchase a costume for Oct. 31. If anyone asks what you're dressed as, just call yourself a crypto trader, pull out your empty wallet and pantomime how you lost it all. They’ll get it. Boy, will they get it.

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Below are a few costume concepts, ordered top to bottom from the ultra-lazy and cheap to the more involved. Take them and make them your own.

Blockchain Fork: Do you own a fork? Good, whenever your friends ask where they should head next, hold it high and say “I’m proposing a fork.”


The Merge: Steal a road sign and lug it around.

A White Paper: Cover yourself in a ream of looseleaf paper. (Although podcaster Laura Shin will always wear it best.)

Margin Call: A white T-shirt with “margin” written across it, and a prop phone.

Blockchain Evangelist: This is more performative. Dress up as a preacher and tell people about how crypto has arrived and the end is near for fiat.

Get up on your soap box and proclaim the end of days this Halloween. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)
Get up on your soap box and proclaim the end of days this Halloween. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)

A DAO: Wear a rope over your shoulders and carry a stack of poker chips. When someone asks what your costume is, say, "I'm a DAO, I have a token and dis cord."

The Third Arrow: Buy one of those headbands that makes it look like an arrow is going through your head. For brownie points, ask strangers if they’ve seen your friends Su Zhu and Kyle Davies. “They were just here a moment ago.”

Caitlin Long-Dead: Dress up like beloved crypto doyen and Cowboy Stater, but as a zombie.

Blood Garlinghouse: If you are Ripple founder Brad Garlinghouse, just call yourself Blood. If you are anyone else, dress up as Brad Garlinghouse covered in blood.

Ferocious: Like the lovable NFT artist FEWOCiOUS, but act like you have rabies.

The Bear Market: A bear dressed as a janitor, to “clear out the junk.”

LUNA-Tic: Your standard-fare tic costume, with LUNA written on it. If it doesn’t land, say you’re werewolf Gregor Samsa.

Sexy Charles Hockinson: If you are a falconer (like Cardano’s self-effacing founder), bring around your bird of prey, but show a little skin.

“You’re Size Is Not Size”: Riffing on embarrassed Terra founder Do Kwon’s infamous taunt, wear clothing that is clearly a few sizes too small.

Do Kwon tempted fate and blew up his multi-billion dollar stablecoin empire. The worst that can happen to you is that your too-small pants rip. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)
Do Kwon tempted fate and blew up his multi-billion dollar stablecoin empire. The worst that can happen to you is that your too-small pants rip. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)

Not Trading Advice: Dress up like a venture capitalist going on safari. But preface and end every conversation you have with “This is not trading advice.”

Proof-of-Stake: Carry around a magnifying glass and print out a teeny tiny image of a steak diner. Ask people what they see. Eureka, it’s steak!

Log Scale: "Yes, the market has crashed. But if you zoom out, bitcoin is still the best-performing asset of the past decade." Carry around a bathroom scale and Lincoln logs.

Proof-of-Work: Print out your completed crypto startup OKRs to show everyone what you’ve accomplished this quarter.

Merkle Tree: Combine an Angela Merkel mask with a tree costume.

Everyone enjoys German politics and cryptography! (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)
Everyone enjoys German politics and cryptography! (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)

UST Breaking the Buck: A deer costume, shot dead – like the algorithmic stablecoin that dropped below $1.

CIA asset: For this one, you'll also need to dress up as Charles Hoskinson.

Inflation hedge: Dress up like a privet hedge with an LED screen that shows a .gif of rising prices. (Does the costume work? Not really. But neither did BTC as a hedge.)

Tungsten cube: A cardboard box lined with tungsten. For extra fun, ask your friends to pick you up – marvel when they realize how dense you’ve become.

Tungsten cubes have more mass relative to their size than most people expect. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)
Tungsten cubes have more mass relative to their size than most people expect. (Sam Ewen/DALL-E)

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.

Daniel Kuhn

Daniel Kuhn is a deputy managing editor for Consensus Magazine. He owns minor amounts of BTC and ETH.


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