A maxi is basically someone who’s ride-or-die for one single coin, usually Bitcoin, and thinks everything else is garbage. The term derives from “maximalist,” and it started getting used a lot back in 2017–2018 when altcoin season was wild and Bitcoin purists started pushing back hard.
Most people mean Bitcoin maxi when they say the word. They believe BTC is the only real decentralized money that matters. They point to the 21 million hard cap and the proof-of-work security that’s never been seriously cracked.
To the OG Maxis, altcoins are either centralized scams, pre-mined Ponzi schemes, or just unnecessary experiments that dilute the focus of sound money.
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You’ll hear them call Ethereum “a security with a founder,” Solana “VC chain,” or memecoins “rug-pull casinos.” They often say the endgame is Bitcoin absorbing value from everything else, like gold, fiat reserves, real estate, etc.
That said, the label has spread. Now you get Ethereum maxis who are convinced smart contracts and DeFi are the actual future of finance, and Bitcoin is just digital gold sitting in a vault doing nothing useful. Some Cardano or Solana diehards call themselves maxis too, but they’re way less common, and they usually get clowned for it.
Maxis tend to hang out in echo-chamber corners of Twitter/X, Telegram, or Reddit, dunking on anyone who holds more than one coin. Critics say they’re dogmatic and blind to innovation; maxis say they’re just realistic about where real scarcity and security actually live.