In the parlance of crypto brokers, rekt is slang for “destroyed” or incurred severe financial losses due to a bad trade/ investment. It implies that a trader has lost considerable amounts of money as a result of a crypto trade. Rekt is a phonetic spelling of the adjective “wrecked” (damaged or destroyed). It was originated in video gaming (first surfaced around 2010–15): it initially described a situation where something or person that has been damaged or destroyed, particularly after having dominated in a video game.

The term “rekt” may denote different meanings in different contexts. With respect to cryptocurrency trading, it implies financial damages or destruction due to incurrence of heavy trading losses. If a market participant (X) is trading on margin using a highly leveraged long position, and because of a change in market fundamentals, the market moves in an unfavorable direction, then the position will get liquidated, and the trader will be described as “rekt”. In this specific context, rekt describes a trader who gets liquidated after losing a high-leveraged position.

The term may also refer to a crypto that loses too much of its value (it is said to be rekt). If a coin trader has heavily invested in a cryptocurrency token through an initial coin offering (ICO), and then after the token was successfully introduced to the market, it was trading at a much lower price than the ICO price, the token is said to be “rekt”.

In the same logic, a “rekt market” or a “market that is rekt” is one that experienced a significant downward movement.