Crypto Glossary

When it comes to cryptocurrency, a combination of technical jargon and slang creates confusion in an already complex industry. This article will break down the most common crypto terms and explain what they mean. Think of this as your crypto jargon handbook.

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0x Protocol: A decentralised infrastructure on the Ethereum blockchain used to integrate currency exchange into decentralised applications.

51% Attack: A hack where an attacker gains over 51% of a network’s mining power so they can manipulate, alter or forge transactions.

A

Address: A cryptocurrency address refers to a unique set of letters and numbers used to identify a particular set of keys on a blockchain. Simply put, it is used as a reference to send and receive crypto or NFTs.

Airdrop: An airdrop is a promotional activity that crypto projects use to distribute their token. Usually, it’s free or in exchange for completing tasks such as following on Twitter or retweeting a tweet.

Algorand: Algorand is a proof-of-stake blockchain which aims to solve the blockchain trilemma of security, scalability and decentralisation with its two-tiered blockchain structure.

All-Time High (ATH): All-time high refers to the highest price a crypto asset has reached. Usually measured in USD, but can be measured against any coin pairing, such as BTC or ETH.

Allocation: Allocation usually refers to the percentage of a portfolio attributed to an asset or asset type. The term is also used when discussing a project’s tokenomics. For example, 20% is distributed to marketing and 30% to airdrop.

Altcoin: Altcoin is a term commonly used to refer to any cryptocurrency coin or token other than Bitcoin.

AML: AML stands for Anti Money Laundering. The term refers to preventing illegal monetary activity where a criminal converts illegally obtained money into legal money.

Apeing: Used to refer to someone investing in a project due to hype or a hunch without conducting adequate research first.

API: API stands for Application Programming Interface. An API is a tool that enables applications to communicate with each other. For example, TradingView uses APIs to collect price data from cryptocurrency exchanges and displays it on its own website.

ASIC: ASIC stands for an Application Specific Integrated Circuit. An ASIC is a microchip designed for specialised computing purposes. In cryptocurrency, miners use ASICs explicitly designed to mine a particular cryptocurrency. This makes the process much more efficient than using a lower-powered computer.

Ask Price: The ask price is the lowest price for which a seller is willing to sell an asset.

Arbitrage: Arbitrage is a trading strategy where traders take advantage of the price discrepancy of an asset on different platforms.

ASIC-Resistant: Some cryptocurrencies are referred to as ASIC-Resistant as they disincentivise miners from using ASICs. They do this by making ASIC mining impossible or pointless. This gives an equal opportunity to mine for all miners, regardless of their equipment.

Atomic Swap: An atomic swap is a type of peer-to-peer transaction in which two individuals can swap currencies from different blockchains without a trusted intermediary party. Instead, the trade is powered by blockchain smart contracts.

Avalanche: Avalanche Chain is a proof-of-stake blockchain which rivals Ethereum. It is known for its scalability and security. Avalanche uses a unique blockchain architecture to address the blockchain trilemma.

B

Bags: Bag or bags refers to an amount of a particular coin in an investor’s portfolio. For example, “I just added to my ETH bag”.

Bear: Bear or bearish is a term used to describe someone who expects cryptocurrency prices to fall.

Bear Market: A bear market is a period in time where prices of crypto assets across the board are falling. Generally, a bear market lasts between 12-18 months.

Bear Trap – An technical analysis pattern that incorrectly signifies a trend reversal in a bull market.

Beta: An early release version of a software used to test and gain insight into its performance. Generally, software which is beta comes with reduced usage fees.

BEP-2: BEP-2 refers to a token native to the BNB beacon chain.

BEP-20: BEP-20 refers to a token native to the BNB Smart Chain.

BEP-721: BEP-721  refers to a token native to the BNB Smart Chain, which allows the creation of NFTs.

Bid Price: The bid price is the highest price for which a buyer is willing to buy an asset.

Bid-Ask Spread: The difference between the ask and bid prices on an order book.

Bitcoin: The most famous first-generation cryptocurrency. It was created by a pseudonymous individual or group named Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009. A decentralised peer-to-peer transaction blockchain secured by the proof-of-work consensus mechanism.

Bitcoin Pizza: The first Bitcoin transaction used to purchase physical goods. A buyer paid 10000 BTC and received two pizzas. In today’s terms, that was $83.6 million per pizza!

Block: A block is a file containing transaction data from multiple cryptocurrency transactions. Blocks are timestamped or referenced to the previous block to create an immutable and sequential record of transactions.

Block Explorer: A block explorer is a website that lets users look up transactions, smart contract or wallet data from a blockchain. This is the way cryptocurrency transactions can be easily traced by anyone.

Block Reward: The reward a miner receives in return for mining transactions on a blockchain. This usually comes in the form of the cryptocurrency they are validating.

Blockchain: A blockchain is a cryptographically secured immutable ledger that stores data in the form of blocks.

BNB: BNB is the native coin of the Binance network. The coin is used to pay transaction fees on the network and is the standard coin pairing for users trading altcoins on the Binance chain. It comes in different forms because the Binance network has multiple chains.

Bollinger Bands: A technical indicator used to measure market volatility.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC): Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10000 different apes created by Yuga Labs and is one of the most popular NFT collections.

Bots: Algorithms used to automatically execute trades, purchase NFTs or for marketing purposes.

Bounty: Bounty is a term that refers to a reward offered to complete a task. Sometimes projects offer marketing bounties, but most commonly, projects offer bug bounties to developers who can find bugs in a piece of software. This helps prevent the software from being exploited by a malicious hacker.

Brave Browser: An open-source internet browser which automatically blocks ads.

Bridge: A bridge is a cryptocurrency protocol which locks funds on one network and mints the same funds on another. Essentially it allows users to transfer funds across different blockchains.

Bull Market: A bull market is when prices of crypto assets across the board are rising. Generally, a bull market lasts around 36 months.

C

Candlestick: A candlestick is the main element of a candlestick chart. It is used to determine price action over a given time period. It shows the open and close price and the high and the low.

Capitulation: Capitulation refers to a time of falling prices where investors sell their assets for fear of further collapse.

Cardano: Cardano is a proof-of-stake blockchain chain created by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. It aims to solve the cryptocurrency industry’s scalability, interoperability and sustainability issues.

Centralisation: Centralization refers to the control of a blockchain or protocol being in the hands of a minority of entities. For example, if the number of miners of Bitcoin fell, it would become more centralised. But there are other ways a blockchain can be centralised, such as the dilution of coin holders or stakers, or the way governance system of the blockchain.

Cipher: An algorithm used to encrypt and decrypt information.

Circulating Supply: The total number of coins currently unlocked and circulating the market. Circulating supply is opposed to the total supply, which includes locked or reserved tokens.

Coin: The native cryptocurrency to a blockchain, such as ETH to Ethereum or BTC to Bitcoin

Collateral: Value risked against a loan to guarantee payment.

CPU: CPU stands for Centralized Processing Unit. It is a piece of hardware used to perform computing tasks. Miners used to use CPUs to mine cryptocurrency but now mainly use the more efficient GPUs.

Cross Margin: Cross margin is a trading tool which allows traders to share their available balance across multiple account positions. Effectively, this is a method to leverage available funds while reducing the likelihood of quick liquidations.

Cryptocurrency: A digital currency secured by cryptography and stored on a public blockchain. They are used to transact peer-to-peer and are most commonly immutable and censorship-resistant.

Cryptography: A technique for securing communication where only the sender and receiver can depict the message

Cryptopunks: Cryptopunks are the blue-chip NFT project with a collection of 10000 punks. Although it was not the first NFT project, it is the most popular from the first generation.

Crypto Winter: A long period of flat or falling prices, many traders lose money in these conditions due to over-trading.

Custody: Custody is the ownership and management of one’s private keys that prove ownership of crypto assets on a blockchain.

Cypherpunk: A digital activist group that believed in cryptography and privacy-enhancing technology. Cypherpunks played a significant role in the development of the original digital currencies. Some cypherpunks were referenced in Satoshi Nakamoto’s Bitcoin whitepaper.

D

DAI: DAI is an algorithmic stablecoin on the Ethereum blockchain. It was created and managed by MakerDAO and aimed to mimic the US Dollar 1:1.

DAO: DAO stands for Decentralized Autonomous Organisation. It refers to a group of people who make decisions for the direction of a blockchain project. Unlike a traditional decision-making group, a DAO is not centralised. Decisions are made bottom-up instead of top-down.

DCA: DCA stands for Dollar Cost Averaging. This investment strategy attempts to reduce volatility’s negative impact on investing by making consistent investments, whether the market is up or down. The strategy is recommended by many investors, including Warren Buffett, as it removes decision-making and emotion from investing.

Dead Cat Bounce: Similarly to a bull trap, a dead cat bounce is where the price of a falling asset briefly bounces, but to no avail and then continues to decline.

Decentralised Application (dApp): A decentralised application, or dApp, is an app built on top of a blockchain protocol leveraging smart contracts and a front-end user interface. Decentralised application source code is hosted on decentralised blockchain nodes, so it cannot be controlled by one entity or organisation.

Decentralised Exchange (DEX): A decentralised exchange, or DEX, is a non-custodial exchange that leverages liquidity pools to facilitate user trades without an intermediary.

Decryption: Decryption is the method used to return an encrypted message to readable.

DeFi: DeFi stands for decentralised finance. The term refers to a collection of tools and protocols used for financial activities in a censorship-resistant, permissionless and non-custodial way. This is opposed to traditional financial services such as banking or even a centralised cryptocurrency exchange such as Binance.

Delisting: Delisting refers to a coin or token being removed from a centralised exchange.

Derivative: A derivative is a trading contract derived from an underlying asset. There are various types of derivates in the cryptocurrency industry, such as futures and options.

Diamond Hands: Diamond hands refers to investors continuing to hold an asset despite volatile market conditions.

Difficulty: Difficulty describes how difficult it is to mine a block on a proof-of-work blockchain. The difficulty is adjusted to regulate block time.

Dogecoin: Dogecoin (DOGE) is a cryptocurrency initially created as a joke in 2013. Nevertheless, the cryptocurrency has seen wide adoption, and Doge developers have made attempts to make it a more accessible cryptocurrency than Bitcoin with features like proof-of-stake to make earning doge easier.

DYOR: DYOR stands for do your own research. It is often used in cryptocurrency to prevent investors from “apeing” into a project.

E

Encryption: Encryption is the process of converting a message so that it becomes unreadable.

Ethereum: Ethereum is a decentralised proof-of-stake blockchain. It was described as a “second generation” blockchain due to its implementation of smart contracts and, therefore, a broader range of use cases than Bitcoin.

ERC-1155: ERC-1155 is a token standard which allows the transfer of fungible and non-fungible tokens in a single transaction on the Ethereum network.

ERC-20: ERC-20 is a token standard for fungible tokens on the Ethereum network. Some examples include USDT, BNB and UNI.

ERC-721: ERC-721 was the original token standard for Ethereum non-fungible tokens. Compared to an ERC-20 token, it allowed for token identifiers to be unique such as its age or visual elements, hence its non-fungibility.

Exchange: An exchange refers to a piece of software that facilitates user token exchanges. Depending on the type of exchange, they are supported similarly to a stock or currency exchange, where a market maker takes the other end of the user’s trade to support liquidity.

F

Fakeout: A price action movement where the price breaks out of support or resistance but lacks volume and quickly returns to the original zone.

Falling Knife: A falling knife is a sharp decrease in a cryptocurrency price. Catching a falling knife is often used to describe a trader who tried to trade the reversal of a falling knife.

Fiat: A centralised currency that a government controls and issues and is not backed by a commodity such as gold.

Fill or Kill Order: A fill or kill order is a type of order where the entire trade must be filled instantly, or it is cancelled.

Finality: Finality refers to when a transaction on a blockchain can no longer be reversed.

First Mover Advantage (FMA): Refers to the first breakthrough product in a market. The product starts with a high market share and has a competitive advantage.

Flippening: The flippening is a term used to describe when or if Ethereum will gain a larger market capitalisation than Bitcoin.

Fork: A change to blockchain rules. Some forks result in the chain splitting into two (hard fork), while others changes can be implemented on the original chain (soft fork).

FUD: FUD stands for fear, uncertainty and doubt. It refers to statements made or concerns about an individual cryptocurrency or the broader market.

Full Node: A full node is a cryptocurrency mining node which holds a copy of the entire blockchain history. Full nodes are essential for immutability and keeping the blockchain network running.

Fungible Tokens: A fungible token is one that cannot be distinguished from another. This means they are interchangeable. For example, ETH or BTC are both fungible.

Futures Contract: A futures contract is an agreement to buy or sell an asset for a given price at a predetermined date in the future. Futures contracts originated in the 1800s as a way for farmers to hedge against unforeseen future risks, such as inflating prices.

FX: FX stands for foreign exchange. It refers to the currencies or Forex market.

G

Gas: Gas is the fee used to pay validators of the Ethereum network.

Gas Limit: A gas limit is the maximum gas a user is willing to pay to complete a transaction. A gas limit estimates the amount of work a validator would do to validate a transaction. A more straightforward transaction consuming less data would cost less gas.

Genesis Block: The first ever block mined or validated on a blockchain.

GitHub: A cloud-based code repository used for collaborative software engineering projects.

Gwei: A demnonimation of ETH, 1 million Gwei are equal to one ETH.

H

Halving: Halving is a term relating to the mining reward issuance for Bitcoin miners halving. The halving mechanism is used to counteract inflation. A halving event happens every four years, the next occurring in 2024.

Hard cap: A hard cap is the maximum amount of cryptocurrency tokens in circulation for a particular project, determined by the token’s source code.

Hash: A hash results from transferring a number or string of text into another value. Hashing is commonly used in cryptography to secure data.

Hash rate: Hash rate refers to the amount of computational power used in a proof-of-work blockchain. Generally, a higher hash rate results in a more secure blockchain.

High-Frequency Trading: High-frequency trading is a form of algorithmic trading where assets are automatically traded many times using bots.

HODL: HODL stands for hold on for dear life. It refers to holding a particular crypto asset and not selling it, despite the market’s volatility.

Honeypot: Honeypot is a cybersecurity term, also used in crypto, to describe a scam that lures victims into engaging with malicious smart contracts.

Higher-Time Frame (HTF): Higher time frame is a term used when describing a time frame of 4 hours or more on a price chart.

 

I

ICO: ICO stands for Initial Coin Offering. The term derives from the stock term IPO. ICO is when a new cryptocurrency project offers its coins to investors to raise funds in order to develop the project.

IEO: IEO stands for Initial Exchange Offering. The term describes when a coin is first made available to the public via an exchange. It is a way for the project to raise capital by distributing previously locked tokens.

Immutability: Immutability refers to the inability to alter data after it is finalised on the blockchain.

Interoperability: Interoperability is the ability of blockchains’ to work together. Currently, most interoperability is achieved through bridges, not direct communication between two blockchains.

Index: An index is used to track the price of a particular asset class.

Isolated Margin: Isolated margin is a financial term which means the margin is attributed to an individual asset. Simply put, it limits the risk of a trade compared to cross-margin, where a losing trade can eat into a user’s entire portfolio balance.

Issuance: The creation of a new cryptocurrency coin or token.

 

J

Jager: A denomination of Binance Coin (BNB). 1 Jager = 0.00000001 BNB

K

KYC: KYC stands for Know Your Customer. It is a check for verifying the identity of users of financial services. Currently, KYC is mostly only used by centralised cryptocurrency companies, but some decentralised protocols have started working on KYC solutions to meet regulations.

L

Latency: Latency refers to a time delay between submitting and confirming a transaction on a cryptocurrency exchange or blockchain network.

Layer 2: Layer 2 refers to a scaling solution built on or alongside a blockchain. Layer 2s reduce the number of transactions carried out on the main chain to reduce scalability issues.

Ledger: A ledger is a record of transactions. The ledger is sequentially stored as a series of blocks, which themselves are groups of transactions.

Lightning Network: The Lightning Network is a Bitcoin layer 2 scaling solution which utilises decentralised peer-to-peer micro channels to facilitate transactions off the main blockchain.

Linux: An open-source operating system allowing users to edit the source code as needed.

Liquidation: In crypto, liquidation generally refers to when an exchange forcibly closes a trade due to the attributed margin not being enough to cover the loss.

Liquidity: Liquidity is the ease of buying or selling a crypto asset without impacting its price. An easy measure of liquidity is trading volume.

Liquidity Mining: Liquidity mining is a method of earning cryptocurrency commissions by depositing funds into a liquidity pool.

Liquidity Pool: A liquidity pool is a smart contract where users can deposit funds. The funds are used to facilitate trades on a DEX. In return, users pay a small commission which goes to liquidity providers.

Liquidity Pool Tokens: Liquidity pool tokens are a token given to liquidity providers in exchange for depositing funds into a liquidity pool. The liquidity provider token is used as a receipt to reclaim the deposited funds and interest earned.

Liquidity Provider: A liquidity provider is a user who deposits funds into a liquidity pool to receive a commission.

Listing: Listing refers to when an exchange enables transacting of a particular token on its platform.

M

Mainnet: Mainnet is a blockchain’s live, working and operational network. This is contrary to a testnet, where developers test changes to the network before implementing them on the mainnet.

Mainnet Swap: A mainnet swap is when a cryptocurrency token moves from one blockchain to another. This usually occurs when they move from a 3rd party chain, such as Ethereum, to their own chain.

Maker: A maker is someone who places an order which is not immediately filled. The order waits in an exchange’s order book until a taker fills it.

Margin Trading: Margin trading is where investors borrow funds to leverage trade.

Market Capitalisation: Market capitalisation, or market cap, is the total value of all a cryptocurrency’s coins. It is calculated by circulating supply multiplied by the value of the currency.

Masternode: A master node is a node which validates new blocks added to a blockchain. This is compared to a regular node which creates new blocks.

Maximum Supply: A coin’s maximum supply is the hard limit of total coins which will ever be in circulation. Maximum supply is also known as a hard cap.

Metadata: A dataset about other data.

Mining: Mining is validating transactions, broadcasting them to other nodes and inputting them into blocks on a distributed ledger. In return, the mining node operators receive a commission.

Mining Farm: A mining farm is a collection of mining nodes in a single space. The nodes can work together to earn rewards more often.

Mining Pool: A mining pool is a collection of mining nodes with different owners who collectively use their hashing power to increase the likelihood of earning rewards. Although the rewards are distributed, they will occur more often. Thus they get a more stable income.

Monero: Monero (XMR) is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency. All transactions are private and anonymous. In comparison, Bitcoin transactions are pseudonymous but public, so all transactions and wallets can be traced.

Moon: Moon is a slang term for a high price. For example, an investor may say, “this token is about to moon”.

Multi-Signature: Multi-signature, or multi-sig, is the requirement for a blockchain transaction to be signed by multiple private keys to complete. This is an additional layer of security in case a wallet is ever compromised.

N

Network: A network refers to a blockchain and the users contributing to it.

NFT: NFT stands for non-fungible token. It refers to a token which is unique and not interchangeable with another. The unique identifier of a token could be anything from a visual element to a slight change in its metadata which differentiates it from other tokens. This gives NFTs a wide range of use cases, from digital art to tickets for events or even tokenisation of real estate.

Node: A node is a computer which carries out cryptocurrency mining or validating.

Nonce: Short for “number used only once”. In crypto, a nonce is a number that the miners must solve to validate a block.

O

Off-Chain: Off-chain refers to events not submitted to and validated on the blockchain. This could be anything from a layer 2 cryptocurrency transaction to a real-world event.

Open-Source Software: Software with source code that anyone, anywhere, can use, alter or update.

Oracle: An oracle is a network which brings off-chain data and inputs it on-chain.

Order Book: An order book is the active orders on a trading exchange waiting to be filled.

P

Paper Hands: Paper hands refers to crypto asset holders who cut losses early.

Paper Wallet: A paper wallet is a piece of paper which holds a set of blockchain public and private keys. The term is also used to describe pieces of metal or plastic holding keys too.

Peer-to-Peer: Also known as P2P, it is a term used to describe permissionless transacting or communicating without a 3rd party intermediary between individuals.

Pegged Currency: A cryptocurrency fixed to the price of another asset or basket of assets.

Permissionless: Users do not require permission to use a blockchain or piece of software.

Polkadot: Polkadot is an open-source blockchain which focuses on interoperability between blockchains. It describes itself as a layer 0 blockchain. The native Polkadot token is DOT.

Polygon: Polygon is a layer 2 scaling solution for Ethereum. It is a side chain, meaning it uses its own consensus mechanism and does not utilise Ethereum’s security.

Ponzi scheme: A form of fraud where earlier investors are paid off with the profits earned from later investors.

Price Impact: Price impact refers to the price change caused by an individual trade.

Private Keys / Public Keys: A private key is a string of numbers used to sign transactions and prove ownership of crypto assets on the blockchain.

Proof of Stake (PoS): A consensus mechanism in which validators risk their capital to validate transactions and earn rewards. For each transaction, a validator is randomly selected based on the amount of capital they have staked. This is more energy efficient than each miner racing to solve a puzzle (as in proof of work) but comes at the cost of increased centralisation.

Proof of Work (PoW): A consensus mechanism where miners race to solve a cryptographic puzzle, the first one to solve it validates the block and earns the reward. The network is secured by computational power instead of capital. This leads to increased decentralisation but reduces energy efficiency.

Protocol: A blockchain protocol refers to the blockchain itself. This is compared to a blockchain network which refers to the blockchain plus its users.

R

Rekt: Slang word for when an investment crashes to zero or near zero.

Rug Pull: Rug pulls come from the idea of pulling a rug out from under someone, which means unexpectedly removing support from a cryptocurrency project. It is a type of scam where a project team builds hype around a project’s future, but once they raise funds, they immediately leave.

S

Satoshi: A Satoshi is the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin. It equates to 0.00000001 BTC.

Satoshi Nakamoto: The pseudonymous creator of Bitcoin. The last known message from Satoshi Nakamoto was on January 10, 2011. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Seed Phrase: Also known as a recovery phrase. A seed phrase is a unique string of words which is a simplified version of a 256-bit private key. Seed phrases are used to access a blockchain wallet.

Sell Wall: A sell wall is a large order that prevents an asset’s price from going up until the entire order is filled.

Shiba Inu: Shiba Inu (SHIB) is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency fork of Dogecoin. Its token is SHIB and features the Japanese Shiba hunting dog as its mascot.

Slippage: Slippage is the difference between the expected and actual price of a trade. Sometimes a trade can be more or less expensive resulting from low liquidity or high volatility in a market.

Smart Contract: A smart contract is a piece of code hosted on a distributed ledger which automatically runs code when certain conditions are met.

Solana: Solana is an open-source blockchain with smart contract functionality. It is regarded as a scalable alternative to Ethereum, but it currently has a larger degree of centralisation.

Stablecoin: A stablecoin is a cryptocurrency pegged to an underlying asset. Some stablecoins are backed by the asset, while others try to replicate its price algorithmically. Since Luna Terra’s UST, many people have been concerned about the algorithmic version.

Staking Pool: A staking pool is where a group of cryptocurrency holders on a proof-of-stake blockchain pool their staked holdings together to increase the likelihood of earning rewards. It also allows holders to stake without operating a validating node.

Stellar: Stellar, or Stellar Lumens, is an open-source cryptocurrency used to make cross-border payments of digital currency to fiat currency.

T

Taker: A taker fills a maker’s order on an exchange. This means a taker can make a trade instantly and pay a taker’s fee.

Tether: Tether (USDT) is the largest stablecoin by market cap and also currently the third largest cryptocurrency overall.

Ticker: A ticker is an abbreviation used to identify a cryptocurrency. For example, Ethereum’s ticker is ETH.

Token: A token is a cryptocurrency stored on a blockchain, but not the blockchain’s native currency. For example, USDT is a token on the Ethereum chain. But Ethereum is a coin and not a token because it is the native currency to the blockchain.

Token Lockup: A token lockup is a period of time when tokens are locked into a smart contract and cannot be traded or moved.

Total supply: The total supply refers to the total amount of coins available for a particular cryptocurrency. The total supply includes the circulating supply plus locked or reversed tokens.

Transaction ID: The transaction ID is a string of letters and numbers that identifies each transaction on a blockchain. The transaction ID is proof that the transaction was validated on the blockchain.

Tron: Tron is an open-source proof-of-stake blockchain which aims to provide a decentralised and scalable blockchain.

Trustless: Trustless refers to consensus being agreed upon by multiple nodes. Hence, trust is not placed in one organisation or authority.

U

Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO): A UTXO is a term used to describe the amount of cryptocurrency left after an individual transaction.

USD Coin (USDC): USD Coin is the second largest stablecoin following USDT. It is fiat-collateralized and was founded by Circle.

V

Volatility: Volatility refers to the measure of the price movement of an asset up and down over a period of time.

Volume: Volume is the total amount of an asset bought and sold daily. Volume is a good measure of liquidity and therefore is an indicator of the price impact of a trade.

W

Wallet: A wallet is a piece of hardware or software that stores and manages cryptocurrency keys. More modern wallets allow users to track the balance of different cryptocurrencies.

Web3: Web3 is the next generation of the internet, following web1 and web2. Web3 focuses on users’ ownership of data and digital assets.

Wei: Wei is the smallest denomination of ETH. One Wei is equal to 0.000000000000000001 ETH.

Wen Lambo? When will I have enough money to buy a Lamborghini?

Wen Moon? When will a cryptocurrency project’s price rise dramatically?

Whale: A whale is an individual or organisation holding a large amount of cryptocurrency. Whales can often move markets with their trading activity.

Whitelist: A whitelist is a list of approved participants for an event.

Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC): A wrapped Bitcoin is a token which represents Bitcoin on another blockchain. When a wrapped Bitcoin is minted, the equivalent amount of Bitcoin is purchased and locked on the Bitcoin network.

Wrapped Ether (WETH): An wrapped Ether is a token which represents the Ethereum coin. Wrapped Ether have various uses, but it is mainly used by investors who want to use Ether on a different blockchain network.

X

XRP: XRP is the native coin of the Ripple blockchain. It is used for international payments and currency exchange. Many large financial institutions and banks are interested in the coin due to its security and scalability.

Y

Yield farming: Yield farming is the process of earning cryptocurrency rewards by depositing funds into a pool. Yield farming is effectively the same as liquidity providing. Although yield farmers sometimes use more advanced strategies, such as borrowing funds from DeFi protocols and using them to earn income elsewhere.