Glossary
67 crypto terms, each explained in one sentence first. Open any term for more detail, related ideas and guides.
67 terms shown
A
- Airdrop
- Free tokens sent to wallets, sometimes as a real reward and often as bait in scams.
- APY
- Annual percentage yield: the yearly return including the effect of compounding.
- Automated market makerAdvanced
- A DEX design that prices trades using a formula and a pool of tokens instead of an order book.
B
- Bitcoin dominanceIntermediate
- Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market cap.
- Block
- A batch of transactions added to a blockchain at one time.
- Block rewardIntermediate
- The newly created coins paid to whoever adds a block, on top of transaction fees.
- Blockchain
- A shared, append-only record of transactions that many independent computers keep in sync.
- BridgeAdvanced
- A service that moves tokens between blockchains, often by locking them on one chain and issuing copies on another.
C
- Circulating supply
- The number of coins currently available and moving in the market.
- Consensus mechanismIntermediate
- The method a blockchain's computers use to agree on which transactions happened, and in what order.
- CustodianIntermediate
- A company that holds crypto on behalf of its customers, such as an exchange.
D
- DAOIntermediate
- A group that coordinates decisions and money through token-holder votes executed by smart contracts.
- Decentralized exchangeIntermediate
- A smart-contract-based marketplace where people trade tokens directly from their own wallets.
- DeFi
- Financial services such as trading, lending and borrowing that run on smart contracts instead of banks.
- DepegIntermediate
- When a stablecoin's market price moves away from the value it's supposed to hold.
E
- Ethereum Virtual MachineAdvanced
- The shared computer, run by every Ethereum node, that executes smart contracts.
F
- Fully diluted valuationIntermediate
- What a project's market cap would be if every token that will ever exist were already in circulation.
G
- Gas fee
- The fee you pay to have a transaction processed on Ethereum and similar networks.
- Governance tokenIntermediate
- A token that gives holders voting power over a protocol's rules or treasury.
H
- Halving
- The scheduled event, about every four years, when Bitcoin's block reward is cut in half.
- Hard forkIntermediate
- A change to a blockchain's rules that all nodes must adopt to stay on the same network.
- Hardware wallet
- A small physical device that keeps your private keys offline and signs transactions without exposing them.
- HashrateIntermediate
- The total computing power miners are pointing at a proof-of-work network.
I
- Impermanent lossAdvanced
- The shortfall liquidity providers can face versus simply holding, when the prices of pooled tokens move apart.
- Institutional investor
- A large organization that invests money, such as a pension fund, asset manager or insurer.
L
- Layer 2Intermediate
- A network built on top of a blockchain that processes transactions more cheaply and settles back to it.
- LeverageIntermediate
- Borrowing to make a bigger bet than your own money allows, which magnifies gains and losses.
- Liquid stakingAdvanced
- Staking through a service that gives you a tradable token representing your staked coins.
- LiquidationIntermediate
- The forced sale of a borrower's collateral when its value falls too far relative to the loan.
- Liquidity
- How easily you can buy or sell something without moving its price much.
- Liquidity poolIntermediate
- A pot of two or more tokens locked in a smart contract that traders swap against.
M
- Market capitalization
- Price multiplied by circulating supply: a rough measure of a cryptocurrency's total size.
- Max supply
- The most coins that will ever exist, if the protocol sets a limit.
- MempoolAdvanced
- The waiting area for transactions that have been broadcast but not yet included in a block.
- MEVAdvanced
- Profit that block producers or bots can earn by reordering, including or excluding transactions.
- Mining
- Using specialised computers to secure a proof-of-work blockchain in exchange for new coins and fees.
- Mining difficultyAdvanced
- A setting Bitcoin adjusts about every two weeks so blocks keep arriving roughly every ten minutes.
N
- NodeIntermediate
- A computer that keeps a copy of a blockchain and checks that new transactions follow the rules.
O
- OracleIntermediate
- A service that feeds outside information, like asset prices, into smart contracts.
P
- Phishing
- Tricking someone into giving up passwords, keys or approvals by pretending to be a trusted party.
- Private key
- A secret number that proves ownership of crypto. Anyone who has it can move the funds.
- Proof of reservesIntermediate
- A report showing that a custodian holds enough assets to cover what customers have deposited.
- Proof of stakeIntermediate
- A consensus method where validators lock up coins as collateral for the right to add blocks.
- Proof of workIntermediate
- A consensus method where miners spend computing power to earn the right to add the next block.
- Public address
- The string of characters you share so others can send you crypto, like an account number.
R
S
- Seed phrase
- A list of 12 or 24 words that can recreate all the private keys in a wallet. Never share it.
- Self-custody
- Holding your own private keys instead of trusting an exchange or other company to hold them for you.
- SlashingAdvanced
- A penalty that destroys part of a validator's stake for breaking the network's rules.
- SlippageIntermediate
- The difference between the price you expected and the price your trade actually got.
- Smart contractIntermediate
- A program stored on a blockchain that runs automatically when its conditions are met.
- Spot ETF
- A fund traded on a stock exchange that holds the actual asset, letting investors get exposure through a normal brokerage account.
- Stablecoin
- A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar.
- Staking
- Locking up coins to help secure a proof-of-stake network in exchange for rewards.
- Staking yieldIntermediate
- The annual return stakers earn, usually shown as a percentage of the amount staked.
T
- Token approvalIntermediate
- Permission you give a smart contract to move a specific token from your wallet.
- Token unlockIntermediate
- A scheduled release of tokens held by insiders or investors, adding to circulating supply.
- TokenomicsIntermediate
- The design of a token's supply, distribution, incentives and uses.
- Total value lockedIntermediate
- The total value of crypto deposited in a DeFi protocol or network.
- Trading volume
- The total value of an asset traded over a period, usually the last 24 hours.
V
- ValidatorIntermediate
- A participant in a proof-of-stake network who stakes coins and helps propose and confirm blocks.
- Validator exit queueAdvanced
- The waiting line Ethereum validators join when they stop staking, which limits how quickly stake can leave.
- Volatility
- How much and how quickly a price moves up and down.
W
- Wallet
- Software or a device that stores the keys you need to access and move your crypto.
- Wallet drainerIntermediate
- Malicious code, often behind a fake website, that tricks users into signing transactions that empty their wallet.
Z
- Zero-knowledge proofAdvanced
- A way to prove something is true without revealing the underlying data.