Glossary

A

• Account Abstraction Short definition of Account Abstraction.
• Altcoin Any crypto asset other than bitcoin.

B

• Basis The gap between a futures price and the spot price.
• Bear Market A sustained decline, usually taken as a fall of twenty per cent or more.
• Bid-Ask Spread The gap between the best bid and the best offer.
• 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.
• Bull Market A sustained period of rising prices and broad participation.

C

• Circulating Supply Tokens currently available to trade.
• Collateral Assets pledged to secure a loan or position.
• Composability Short definition of Composability.
• Custody Holding assets on someone else's behalf.

D

• DAO Short definition of DAO.
• 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.
• Difficulty Adjustment The automatic retuning that keeps block times steady.
• DYOR Do your own research.

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.
• Finality The point at which a transaction can no longer be reversed.
• FOMO Buying because a price is rising rather than because of analysis.
• FUD Fear, uncertainty and doubt.
• Fully Diluted Valuation Price multiplied by total eventual supply.
• Funding Rate The periodic payment that keeps a perpetual near spot.

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.
• HODL Holding through volatility rather than trading it.

I

• Inflation A general rise in prices, reducing what a unit of currency buys.
• Interest Rate The price of borrowing money.

L

• Liquidation The forced closure of a position whose collateral has fallen too far.
• Liquidity How much can be traded without moving the price.
• Liquidity Crisis When solvent participants cannot raise cash quickly enough.
• Liquidity Pool Assets deposited into a contract so others can trade against them.

M

• Market Capitalisation Circulating supply multiplied by price.
• Market Cycle The repeating pattern of expansion and contraction.
• Memecoin A token whose value rests on attention rather than utility.
• Mining Competing to add the next block in exchange for a reward.

N

• Node A computer that keeps its own copy of the chain and checks every rule.

O

• Open Interest The total value of derivative contracts still open.
• 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 Work Securing a ledger by making new blocks expensive to produce.

S

• Smart Contract Code deployed to a blockchain that executes on its own terms.
• Staking Locking assets to help secure a network in return for rewards.

T

• Token Burn Permanently removing tokens from circulation.
• 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 Short definition of Wallet.
• Whale A holder large enough to move a market alone.