Cryptocurrency Glossary

Crypto Glossary

Explore 60 essential concepts you encounter in the news, complete with clear explanations and practical examples.

Learn the terms you encounter in the crypto world with simple definitions and brief examples. Concepts are listed alphabetically; you can type the term’s name or common abbreviation into the search field.

If you want to learn a process from start to finish, head over to the guides in the Learn Crypto section. For example, the “private key” entry explains the concept itself, while wallet security guides detail how to protect your keys and backups.

Networks

Node

A node is a computer that runs a blockchain network's software to share data and verify transactions with other participants.

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Markets

What Is a Bear Market?

A bear market is a market environment defined by a decline in prices over an extended period.

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Networks

What Is a Block?

A block is a unit of record on a blockchain containing transactions grouped under specific rules and the information required to verify them.

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Markets

What Is a Bull Market?

A bull market describes a general and sustained upward trend in prices.

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Markets

What Is a Crypto Whale?

A whale is a term used for a market participant who controls a large amount of an asset relative to the total supply or market scale.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is a DAO?

A DAO describes structures where collective decision-making and resource management are organized through specific rules and on-chain tools.

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Scaling

What is a Fork?

A fork describes a divergence in blockchain history or a change in protocol rules.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is a Governance Token?

A governance token is a management asset that allows participation in specific decision-making processes of a protocol.

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Scaling

What Is a Hard Fork?

A hard fork is a protocol change that introduces new rules incompatible with older validation standards.

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Networks

What is a Hash?

A hash is a fixed-length unique digital fingerprint generated from data using a specific algorithm.

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Custody

What Is a Honeypot Token?

A honeypot token refers to a cryptocurrency that allows users to buy but prevents selling or transferring through malicious contract rules.

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Transactions

What is a Mainnet?

Mainnet is the primary network of a blockchain functioning for real economic usage.

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Networks

What is a Mempool?

A mempool is the waiting area where a node stores transactions that have not yet been included in a block.

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Networks

What is a Nonce?

A nonce is a counter or trial value that serves different functions depending on the protocol context, such as mining or transaction sequencing.

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Custody

What Is a Passphrase?

A passphrase is an additional secret expression added to recovery words in certain wallets to derive different keys and enhance security.

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Custody

What is a Private Key?

A private key is a secret cryptographic key used to sign transactions and prove ownership of digital assets.

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Custody

What Is a Public Key?

A public key is a publicly shareable cryptographic key associated with a private key, used for verifying digital signatures within a cryptographic network.

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Scaling

What is a Rollup?

A rollup is a scaling approach that executes transactions off the main chain and links the results and necessary validation data back to the main network.

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Custody

What Is a Rug Pull?

A rug pull describes the act of parties with control over a project or liquidity withdrawing support or assets in a way that causes financial loss for users.

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Scaling

What Is a Sequencer?

A sequencer is a component in certain scaling networks that organizes the order of transactions.

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Transactions

What Is a Smart Contract?

A smart contract is a program that runs on the blockchain under specific conditions.

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Scaling

What Is a Soft Fork?

A soft fork is a blockchain change that narrows the rules for valid transactions or blocks while maintaining specific backward compatibility characteristics.

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Transactions

What Is a Testnet?

A testnet is a network designed for testing applications and network changes without using actual mainnet balances.

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Tokens & DeFi

What Is a Token Unlock?

A token unlock is the removal of transfer or usage restrictions on previously restricted tokens.

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Transactions

What Is a Transaction Confirmation?

A confirmation is a measure of acceptance tracked as a transaction is included in a block, followed by the addition of subsequent new blocks.

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Networks

What is a Validator?

A validator is an actor that participates in proposing or validating blocks according to network rules.

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Custody

What is a Wallet Address?

A wallet address is an identifier that represents the destination where assets are sent or the spending condition on a network.

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Scaling

What Is a Zero-Knowledge Proof?

A zero-knowledge proof is a cryptographic method that allows proving the validity of a statement without revealing the underlying secret information.

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Custody

What is an Exploit?

An exploit is the act of taking advantage of a weakness in software or system design to perform unintended operations.

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Scaling

What is an Optimistic Rollup?

An optimistic rollup is a rollup approach that verifies results through a specific dispute and fraud-proof mechanism.

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Scaling

What is an Oracle?

An oracle is a mechanism that transfers information from outside the blockchain or different systems into a format that smart contracts can utilize.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is APR?

In crypto interfaces, APR is mostly used for the annualized rate without including the compounding effect.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is APY?

APY is the annualized rate of return calculated based on the assumption of compound interest.

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Markets

What is ATH?

ATH is the highest historical price recorded for an asset within a specific data series.

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Markets

What is ATL?

ATL refers to the lowest historical price of an asset within its recorded data series.

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Markets

What is Bitcoin Dominance?

Bitcoin dominance is the ratio of BTC's market capitalization to the total selected cryptocurrency market capitalization.

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Tokens & DeFi

What Is Circulating Supply?

Circulating supply is the number of tokens that a data provider considers to be available in the market.

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Networks

What is Consensus?

Consensus is the process through which distributed participants use shared rules to agree on which records are considered valid.

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Custody

What Is Custody?

Custody refers to the storage and management of assets or the keys that control them.

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Transactions

What is ERC-20?

ERC-20 is the interface standard that defines the core functions of fungible tokens on Ethereum.

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Transactions

What is ERC-721?

ERC-721 defines the ownership and transfer interface for distinct tokens, commonly known as NFTs.

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Transactions

What Is EVM?

The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the decentralized virtual environment that defines and executes smart contract rules on the Ethereum network.

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Transactions

What is Finality?

Finality refers to the guarantee that a transaction or block cannot be reversed once it has been completed.

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Markets

What is FOMO?

FOMO refers to the tendency to make hasty decisions due to the fear of missing out on a potential opportunity.

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Markets

What is FUD?

FUD stands for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt, representing a tactic used to influence perception by spreading negative or misleading information.

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Markets

What is HODL?

HODL is a term used in the cryptocurrency community to describe the act of holding onto an asset despite price volatility.

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Scaling

What is Interoperability?

Interoperability refers to the ability of separate networks and applications to exchange data or value with each other.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is Maximum Supply?

Maximum supply is the upper limit of tokens defined by a protocol or contract, representing the maximum amount of a crypto asset that will ever exist.

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Networks

What is Mining Difficulty?

Difficulty refers to how hard it is to find a valid block hash in a Proof of Work system.

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Custody

What is Multisig?

Multisig is an authorization setup that requires multiple signatures for a transaction to be executed.

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Networks

What is Proof of Stake (PoS)?

Proof of Stake is a consensus approach that links the economic collateral of validators to the security of the network.

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Networks

What is Proof of Work (PoW)?

Proof of Work is a mechanism based on verifiably demonstrating that a participant has performed computational work.

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Custody

What Is Reentrancy?

Reentrancy occurs when a contract is called back during an external call, exploiting an incomplete state before internal records are updated.

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Scaling

What Is SegWit?

SegWit is a Bitcoin protocol update that changes how signature data is processed and introduces the concept of transaction weight.

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Tokens & DeFi

What Is Token Burning?

Token burning refers to making tokens unusable through protocol or contract rules, effectively removing them from circulation.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is TVL?

TVL is the total value of assets considered locked or deposited within a protocol.

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Transactions

What is TXID?

A TXID is a transaction ID used to identify and search for a specific transaction on a blockchain explorer.

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Transactions

What Is UTXO?

UTXO refers to the unspent transaction output in Bitcoin.

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Tokens & DeFi

What is Vesting?

Vesting is the process by which tokens or rights become available for use over time based on predefined conditions.

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Markets

What Is Volatility?

Volatility refers to the magnitude and frequency of price fluctuations for a financial asset.

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