Crypto Glossary — Plain-English Definitions A–Z

Airdrop Beginner

An airdrop is a free distribution of cryptocurrency tokens sent directly to multiple wallet addresses, usually to promote a new project, reward past users, or spread out ownership of a token. Read more →

Altcoin Beginner

“Altcoin” means any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin — literally an “alternative coin.” Read more →

Automated Market Maker (AMM) Intermediate

An automated market maker (AMM) is a decentralised exchange mechanism that prices and executes trades using a mathematical formula and pooled liquidity, rather than matching individual buy and sell orders. Read more →

APR Beginner

APR, or annual percentage rate, is the simple yearly interest rate earned or charged on a crypto deposit, loan, or staking position, without factoring in compounding. Read more →

APY Beginner

APY, or annual percentage yield, is the yearly rate of return on a crypto deposit or staking position that includes the effect of compounding. Read more →

Arbitrage Intermediate

Arbitrage is the practice of profiting from a temporary price difference in the same asset across two or more markets by buying it where it's cheaper and selling where it's more expensive. Read more →

All-Time High (ATH) Beginner

An all-time high is the highest price an asset has ever reached. Read more →

Bear Market Beginner

A bear market is a sustained period of falling prices and pessimism. Read more →

Bitcoin Beginner

Bitcoin is the first and largest cryptocurrency — a decentralised digital money with a fixed maximum supply of 21 million coins. Read more →

Spot Bitcoin ETF Intermediate

A spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that holds actual Bitcoin and lets investors gain price exposure by buying shares through an ordinary brokerage account. Read more →

Block Beginner

A block is a bundle of verified transactions that gets permanently added to a blockchain's ongoing chain of records. Read more →

Block Explorer Beginner

A block explorer is a website or tool that lets anyone search and view the transactions, blocks, and wallet activity recorded on a public blockchain. Read more →

Block Reward Intermediate

A block reward is the newly issued cryptocurrency, often combined with collected transaction fees, paid to whoever successfully adds a new block to a blockchain. Read more →

Blockchain Beginner

A blockchain is a shared, append-only ledger of transactions maintained across many computers rather than by a single authority. Read more →

Cross-Chain Bridge Intermediate

A cross-chain bridge is a protocol that allows assets or data to move between two otherwise separate and incompatible blockchains. Read more →

Bull Market Beginner

A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices and optimism. Read more →

Candlestick Chart Beginner

A candlestick chart displays an asset's price movement over a set time period, showing the opening, closing, high, and low prices as a single candle shape. Read more →

CBDC Intermediate

A CBDC, or central bank digital currency, is a digital form of a country's official currency, issued and backed directly by its central bank. Read more →

Centralised Exchange (CEX) Beginner

A centralised exchange (CEX) is a company-operated platform where users can buy, sell, and trade cryptocurrencies, with the company typically holding custody of funds during trading. Read more →

Cold Wallet Beginner

A cold wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that stores private keys completely offline, isolating them from internet-connected devices and online threats. Read more →

Consensus Mechanism Intermediate

A consensus mechanism is the set of rules a blockchain network uses to get independent participants to agree on which transactions are valid and in what order they happened. Read more →

DAO Advanced

A DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) is a community-run entity governed by token-holder votes and smart contracts rather than a traditional management structure. Read more →

dApp Beginner

A dApp, or decentralised application, is a software application whose core logic runs on a blockchain network through smart contracts, rather than on a single company's private servers. Read more →

Decentralisation Beginner

Decentralisation means spreading control of a network across many independent participants rather than relying on a single central authority. Read more →

Decentralised Exchange (DEX) Intermediate

A decentralised exchange (DEX) is a platform that lets people trade cryptocurrencies directly from their own wallets using automated smart contracts, without a central company holding their funds. Read more →

DeFi Intermediate

DeFi (decentralised finance) is financial services — lending, trading, earning yield — built on public blockchains without traditional intermediaries. Read more →

Bitcoin Dominance Intermediate

Bitcoin dominance is the percentage of the total cryptocurrency market's combined market capitalisation that belongs to Bitcoin. Read more →

DYOR Beginner

DYOR stands for “do your own research” — a reminder to verify claims independently before making any decision. Read more →

ERC-20 Intermediate

ERC-20 is a technical standard that defines a common set of rules for creating and issuing tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Read more →

Ethereum Beginner

Ethereum is the largest smart-contract platform — a programmable blockchain whose native asset is ether (ETH). Read more →

Fear & Greed Index Beginner

The Fear & Greed Index summarises crypto market sentiment on a 0–100 scale, from extreme fear to extreme greed. Read more →

Fiat Currency Beginner

Fiat is government-issued money, such as the US dollar or euro, that is not backed by a physical commodity. Read more →

Fork Intermediate

A fork is a change to a blockchain's underlying software rules that can split its transaction history or create a new, separate version of the network. Read more →

FUD Beginner

FUD stands for fear, uncertainty, and doubt — negative or alarming information, whether accurate or exaggerated, that spreads through a market and pressures sentiment downward. Read more →

Gas Intermediate

Gas is the fee paid to process a transaction on Ethereum, measured in a small unit of ether called gwei. Read more →

Genesis Block Intermediate

The genesis block is the very first block ever created on a blockchain, forming the foundation that every later block is built on. Read more →

Governance Token Intermediate

A governance token gives its holder the right to vote on decisions about how a decentralised protocol is run, such as proposed upgrades or changes to its rules. Read more →

Halving Intermediate

The Bitcoin halving is a scheduled event, roughly every four years, that cuts the reward miners receive for adding a block in half. Read more →

Hardware Wallet Beginner

A hardware wallet is a small physical device that stores the private keys to your cryptocurrency offline, keeping them isolated from internet-connected computers. Read more →

Hash Rate Intermediate

Hash rate is a measure of the total computing power being used to mine and secure a proof-of-work blockchain like Bitcoin. Read more →

HODL Beginner

HODL is crypto slang for holding onto an asset for the long term rather than selling during short-term price swings. Read more →

Hot Wallet Beginner

A hot wallet is a cryptocurrency wallet that stays connected to the internet, making it convenient for regular use but more exposed to online threats than offline storage. Read more →

Impermanent Loss Advanced

Impermanent loss is the reduction in value a liquidity provider can experience when the prices of the assets they've deposited into a pool change relative to each other, compared with simply holding those assets. Read more →

KYC Beginner

KYC, short for Know Your Customer, is the identity verification process that regulated exchanges and financial platforms use to confirm who their users are. Read more →

Layer 1 Intermediate

A Layer 1 blockchain is a base, independent network — like Bitcoin or Ethereum — that processes and finalises its own transactions rather than relying on another chain underneath it. Read more →

Layer 2 Intermediate

A Layer 2 is a separate network built on top of a Layer 1 blockchain to help it process more transactions, while still relying on the base chain for final security and settlement. Read more →

Leverage Advanced

Leverage is borrowed capital used to increase the size of a trading position beyond what a trader's own funds would allow. Read more →

Liquidation Advanced

Liquidation is the forced closing of a leveraged position when losses reduce a trader's margin below the level required to keep it open. Read more →

Liquidity Intermediate

Liquidity is how easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price much. Read more →

Liquidity Pool Intermediate

A liquidity pool is a pool of two or more crypto assets locked in a smart contract that lets people trade, borrow, or earn yield without relying on a traditional buyer-and-seller order book. Read more →

Mainnet Beginner

A mainnet is the live, fully operational version of a blockchain where transactions are real and the assets involved have actual value. Read more →

Market Capitalisation Beginner

Market cap is a coin’s current price multiplied by its circulating supply — a measure of its total size. Read more →

Mempool Intermediate

The mempool, short for memory pool, is the waiting area where a blockchain node holds transactions that have been broadcast to the network but not yet included in a block. Read more →

Metaverse Beginner

The metaverse refers to persistent, shared virtual worlds where people can socialise, play, work, or trade, and in some cases these worlds use blockchain technology to handle ownership of digital items and land. Read more →

Mining Intermediate

Mining is the process of using computing power to validate transactions and secure a proof-of-work blockchain like Bitcoin. Read more →

Mining Pool Intermediate

A mining pool is a group of cryptocurrency miners who combine their computing power and share the resulting block rewards in proportion to what each contributed. Read more →

NFT Beginner

An NFT (non-fungible token) is a unique blockchain token used to represent ownership of a specific item, such as art or collectibles. Read more →

Node Intermediate

A node is any computer that connects to a blockchain network and helps store, verify, or relay its data. Read more →

On-Chain Beginner

On-chain describes any data, transaction, or activity that is recorded directly on a blockchain, rather than happening somewhere off it. Read more →

Oracle Intermediate

An oracle is a service that feeds outside, real-world data, such as asset prices, into a blockchain so that smart contracts can use information they cannot access on their own. Read more →

Order Book Beginner

An order book is a real-time list of buy and sell orders for an asset on an exchange, organised by price. Read more →

Peg Beginner

A peg is a mechanism that ties the value of one asset, most often a stablecoin, to a reference asset such as the US dollar, in order to keep its price stable. Read more →

Private Key Intermediate

A private key is the secret number that controls a crypto wallet and authorises transactions from it. Read more →

Proof of Stake Intermediate

Proof of stake is a blockchain consensus mechanism in which validators lock up cryptocurrency as collateral to earn the right to confirm transactions and create new blocks. Read more →

Proof of Work Intermediate

Proof of work is a blockchain consensus mechanism in which participants, called miners, compete to solve a computationally demanding puzzle in order to add the next block. Read more →

Protocol Beginner

A protocol is the set of rules that defines how a blockchain network or application operates and how its participants interact with it. Read more →

Public Key Intermediate

A public key is a cryptographic code, mathematically derived from a private key, that can be shared openly and is used to receive funds or verify digital signatures. Read more →

Pump and Dump Intermediate

A pump and dump is a scheme in which a group deliberately inflates an asset's price through hype or coordinated buying, then sells at the top, leaving later buyers holding the loss. Read more →

Rug Pull Intermediate

A rug pull is when a crypto project's creators or major holders suddenly withdraw funds or abandon the project, leaving other holders with a token that is largely worthless or illiquid. Read more →

Satoshi Beginner

A satoshi, often shortened to sat, is the smallest unit of bitcoin, equal to one hundred-millionth of a single BTC. Read more →

Seed Phrase Beginner

A seed phrase is a sequence of words, typically 12 or 24, generated by a crypto wallet that can restore access to every account and fund that wallet controls. Read more →

Sharding Advanced

Sharding is a scaling technique that splits a blockchain's data or transaction processing across multiple parallel partitions, called shards, instead of requiring every node to handle every transaction. Read more →

Slippage Intermediate

Slippage is the difference between the price a trader expects for a trade and the price at which it actually executes, usually caused by price movement or thin liquidity. Read more →

Smart Contract Intermediate

A smart contract is code deployed on a blockchain that runs automatically when its conditions are met. Read more →

Stablecoin Beginner

A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value, usually pegged to a currency like the US dollar. Read more →

Staking Intermediate

Staking means locking up a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency to help secure the network, earning rewards in return. Read more →

Testnet Beginner

A testnet is a separate, parallel version of a blockchain network used for testing and development, where the native tokens have no real-world monetary value. Read more →

Token Beginner

A token is a digital unit of value or utility issued on top of an existing blockchain, rather than being that blockchain's own native asset. Read more →

Tokenomics Intermediate

Tokenomics is the economic design of a crypto token or project, covering its supply schedule, distribution, utility and incentive structures, and how those factors are intended to influence its value and use. Read more →

Total Value Locked (TVL) Intermediate

Total Value Locked, or TVL, is an estimate of the total value of crypto assets deposited in a DeFi protocol, such as in lending markets, liquidity pools or staking contracts. Read more →

UTXO Advanced

UTXO stands for Unspent Transaction Output, a model used by Bitcoin and several other blockchains to track ownership, where transactions consume previous unspent outputs and create new ones rather than updating a single account balance. Read more →

Validator Intermediate

A validator is a participant in a proof-of-stake blockchain network that verifies transactions and proposes or confirms new blocks, typically by staking a quantity of the network's native token as collateral. Read more →

Volatility Beginner

Volatility describes how sharply and quickly a price moves up and down. Read more →

Wallet Beginner

A crypto wallet is software or hardware that stores the keys used to access and move your cryptocurrency. Read more →

Web3 Beginner

Web3 is a broad term for a proposed model of the internet built around blockchain technology, where users interact directly with decentralised networks and hold their own assets and data rather than relying solely on centralised platforms. Read more →

Whale Beginner

A whale is a slang term for an individual or entity holding a very large amount of a particular cryptocurrency, large enough that their trades can noticeably move the market price. Read more →

Yield Farming Advanced

Yield farming is the practice of moving crypto assets between different DeFi protocols to earn the highest possible returns, typically in the form of interest, fees or additional token rewards. Read more →

ZK-Rollup Advanced

A ZK-rollup, or zero-knowledge rollup, is a layer-2 scaling technique that bundles many transactions off the main blockchain and submits a cryptographic proof to the main chain confirming they are all valid. Read more →