Crypto & Finance Glossary

An SEC accounting bulletin that required banks to record crypto they custody as liabilities on their own balance sheets.

An MEV strategy where a bot places a buy order right before your swap and a sell order right after, profiting from the price impact your trade creates.

The smallest unit of Bitcoin, equal to 0.

A blockchain's ability to handle increasing transaction volume without degrading performance or raising fees.

A zkEVM Layer 2 on Ethereum that aims for full bytecode-level EVM equivalence using zero-knowledge proofs.

The legal determination of whether a crypto token qualifies as a security under financial law.

A series of 12 or 24 words that can restore your crypto wallet.

A Layer 1 blockchain optimized specifically for trading applications.

Holding your own private keys rather than trusting an exchange or service to hold them.

The overall mood or attitude of market participants toward an asset.

The component in a rollup that orders and batches transactions before submitting them to the main chain.

The fee charged by a Layer 2 rollup's sequencer for ordering and processing transactions.

Crypto Twitter's version of 'sir', used in a semi-ironic, respectful way.

Splitting a blockchain into smaller pieces (shards) that process transactions in parallel.

A sequencer that serves multiple Layer 2 rollups simultaneously, enabling atomic transactions and shared ordering across chains.

A measure of risk-adjusted return.

Aggressively promoting a cryptocurrency, usually one you're invested in, to get others to buy and drive the price up.

A derogatory term for cryptocurrencies with no utility, purpose, or future.

A trade that profits when an asset's price decreases.

A separate blockchain connected to a main chain through a two-way bridge.

An attack where a scammer convinces your mobile carrier to transfer your phone number to their SIM card.

A penalty where validators lose part of their staked tokens for misbehavior.

The specific rules that determine when a validator's staked tokens get partially destroyed as punishment.

The difference between expected and actual trade execution price.

The maximum price difference you're willing to accept between when you submit a trade and when it executes.

Self-executing code stored on a blockchain that runs when conditions are met.

A professional security review of smart contract code to find vulnerabilities before deployment.

Any attack that takes advantage of bugs or vulnerabilities in smart contract code.

Wallets belonging to successful traders, VCs, or insiders who consistently make profitable moves.

An automated trading bot that buys tokens the instant they're listed on a DEX, often within the first block.

Manipulating people into revealing confidential information or taking actions that compromise security.

A wallet recovery method where trusted friends or family (guardians) can help you regain access to your wallet if you lose your keys.

Social media platforms that integrate DeFi elements, letting users earn tokens for creating content, curating feeds, or building an audience.

A backward-compatible upgrade to a blockchain where old nodes can still validate the new rules.

A high-speed Layer 1 blockchain known for cheap transactions and fast finality.

The main programming language used to write smart contracts on Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains.

An off-chain actor in intent-based systems that competes to fulfill user intents in the most efficient way.

A non-transferable NFT that represents credentials, achievements, or identity attributes.

Buying assets hoping to profit from price changes rather than fundamental value.

The token standard on Solana, equivalent to ERC-20 on Ethereum.

An exchange-traded fund that holds the actual cryptocurrency rather than futures contracts.

The difference between a derivative's price and the underlying asset's spot price.

Buying and selling assets for immediate delivery at current market prices.

The difference between the highest bid and lowest ask price for an asset.

A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, usually pegged to the US dollar.

Regulatory frameworks specifically governing stablecoins, covering reserve requirements, auditing, issuer licensing, and consumer protections.

Locking up tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network and earn rewards.

Companies or platforms that handle the technical aspects of staking so you don't have to run your own validator node.

Tokens you receive when you stake through a liquid staking protocol, representing your staked position plus accumulated rewards.

A cross-chain bridge built on LayerZero that enables native asset transfers between chains.