Crypto Glossary

Plain-English definitions for the terms used across our market reports, price analysis and news desk.

89 terms defined

NFTs & Web3

Airdrop

A free distribution of tokens to qualifying wallets.

Also called airdrops, airdropped

Trading & Markets

Arbitrage

Profiting from the same asset trading at different prices in different venues.

Also called arb, arbitrageur

Blockchain Technology

Bridge

Infrastructure that moves assets or messages between two blockchains.

Also called cross-chain bridge, bridging

Stablecoins & Payments

CBDC

A digital form of national currency issued directly by a central bank.

Also called central bank digital currency, digital rupee, e-rupee

Trading & Markets

CEX

A company-operated exchange that holds customer funds and matches orders internally.

Also called centralized exchange, centralised exchange, exchange

Crypto Basics

Confirmation

Each new block built on top of the one containing your transaction.

Also called confirmations, confirmed

Regulation & Tax

Crypto Tax

How gains and transfers of crypto assets are taxed in a given country.

Also called VDA tax, capital gains tax, TDS

NFTs & Web3

DAO

An organisation run by token-holder votes executed through smart contracts.

Also called decentralized autonomous organization, DAOs

Crypto Basics

Decentralisation

Spreading control of a network across many independent participants.

Also called decentralization, decentralized, decentralised

Security & Custody

Exploit

An attack that abuses a flaw in contract logic to drain funds.

Also called hack, protocol exploit

Blockchain Technology

Fork

A change to protocol rules that splits or upgrades a chain.

Also called hard fork, soft fork, forked

Trading & Markets

Futures

Contracts to trade an asset at a future price, often with no expiry in crypto.

Also called perpetual, perps, perpetual swap, futures contract

Mining & Consensus

Halving

The scheduled 50 per cent cut to Bitcoin's block reward every 210,000 blocks.

Also called halvening, bitcoin halving

Blockchain Technology

Hash

A fixed-length fingerprint produced from any input by a one-way cryptographic function.

Also called hashing, hash function

Crypto Basics

HODL

Holding through volatility rather than trading in and out.

Also called hodling, hodler

Regulation & Tax

KYC

Identity verification required of customers by regulated financial services.

Also called know your customer, AML

Blockchain Technology

Layer 2

A network built on top of a base chain that processes transactions cheaply and settles back to it.

Also called L2, layer-2, rollup

Trading & Markets

Leverage

Borrowing to trade a position larger than your own capital.

Also called margin, leveraged, margin trading

Trading & Markets

Liquidation

Forced closure of a leveraged position when margin no longer covers losses.

Also called liquidated, liquidation cascade

Trading & Markets

Liquidity

How easily an asset can be traded without moving its price.

Also called liquid, illiquid, order book depth

Trading & Markets

Market Cycle

The repeating pattern of accumulation, expansion, distribution and decline.

Also called four-year cycle, crypto cycle

Blockchain Technology

MEV

Profit extracted by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions in a block.

Also called maximal extractable value, miner extractable value

Mining & Consensus

تعدين

Competing to add the next block to a proof-of-work chain in exchange for newly issued coins.

Also called miner, miners, crypto mining

NFTs & Web3

Minting

Creating a new token and writing it onto the blockchain.

Also called mint, minted

Blockchain Technology

Node

A computer running blockchain software that stores and verifies the ledger.

Also called nodes, full node