Glossary

A

• Airdrop Distributing tokens free to a chosen set of addresses.
• Altcoin Any crypto asset other than bitcoin.
• Arbitrage Profiting from the same asset trading at two prices.
• Automated Market Maker A pricing formula that quotes both sides of a market from a pool of…

B

• Basis Short definition of Basis.
• Bitcoin The first blockchain network, and the asset native to it.
• Bitcoin Dominance Bitcoin's share of total crypto market capitalisation.
• Blockchain A shared, append-only ledger maintained by many computers at once.
• Bridge Infrastructure that moves value between blockchains.

C

• Collateral Assets pledged to secure a loan or position.
• Composability The ability of contracts to build on one another freely.
• Consensus Mechanism The rules by which a network agrees on one shared history.
• Custody Holding assets on someone else's behalf.

D

• Decentralised Exchange An exchange where trades settle through contracts, not an order book operator.
• DeFi Financial services built as open smart contracts rather than firms.
• Drawdown Short definition of Drawdown.

E

• Ethereum A blockchain designed to run programs, not just record payments.
• Exchange-Traded Fund A fund holding an asset, whose shares trade like a stock.

F

• Fiat Currency Government-issued money not backed by a commodity.
• Funding Rate Short definition of Funding Rate.

G

• Gas The unit measuring computational work on Ethereum, and the fee for it.
• Governance Token A token conferring votes over a protocol.

H

• Halving The scheduled cut to Bitcoin's block reward, roughly every four years.
• Hashrate How much computing power is being pointed at a network.

I

• Inflation A general rise in prices, reducing what a unit of currency buys.
• Interest Rate The price of borrowing money.
• Interoperability The ability of separate chains to communicate.

L

• Layer 2 A network that processes transactions off-chain and settles proofs on-chain.
• Leverage Trading with borrowed capital to enlarge a position.
• Liquid Staking Staking that issues a tradeable receipt for the locked position.
• Liquidity How much can be traded without moving the price.
• Liquidity Pool Assets deposited into a contract so others can trade against them.

M

• Market Cycle The repeating pattern of expansion and contraction.
• Memecoin A token whose value rests on attention rather than utility.
• Mempool The waiting room of unconfirmed transactions.
• MiCA The European Union's crypto-asset regulation.
• Mining Competing to add the next block in exchange for a reward.

N

• NFT A token whose units are individually distinct.

O

• Open Interest Short definition of Open Interest.
• Order Book The live list of resting buy and sell orders.
• Order Flow The stream of buying and selling hitting the market.

P

• Proof of Stake Securing a ledger by putting capital, not electricity, at risk.

S

• Securities and Exchange Commission The United States securities regulator.
• Settlement The point at which a transfer becomes final.
• Slippage Short definition of Slippage.
• Smart Contract Code deployed to a blockchain that executes on its own terms.
• Smart Contract Audit A review of contract code for vulnerabilities.
• Stablecoin A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one dollar.
• Staking Locking assets to help secure a network in return for rewards.

T

• Tokenomics The supply, distribution and incentive design of a token.
• Treasury The assets and cash an organisation holds.

V

• Vesting A schedule releasing allocated tokens over time.
• Volatility How much a price moves, not which way.

W

• Wallet Software or hardware that stores the keys controlling your assets.
• Wrapped Token A token representing an asset from another chain.