Crypto & Finance Glossary

The first cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.

Bitcoin's market cap as a percentage of the total crypto market.

A corporate strategy of using company treasury funds and debt to buy Bitcoin, popularized by MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor.

An Ethereum Layer 2 that offers native yield on ETH and stablecoins deposited on the chain.

A separate fee market for blob data introduced by EIP-4844 that operates independently from Ethereum's regular gas fee market.

Data inscribed in Ethereum blob space (introduced by EIP-4844) rather than in regular calldata.

Temporary data storage introduced by Ethereum's EIP-4844 (proto-danksharding).

A new transaction type introduced with Ethereum's EIP-4844 upgrade that lets Layer 2s post data to Ethereum much more cheaply.

A bundle of transactions that gets permanently added to the blockchain.

A website that lets you search and view everything happening on a blockchain, like transactions, wallet balances, and smart contracts.

The cryptocurrency given to miners or validators for successfully adding a new block to the blockchain.

The average time it takes to produce a new block on a blockchain.

A distributed database where transactions are grouped into blocks and linked together cryptographically.

A well-established, financially sound company or crypto project with a proven track record.

A technical analysis tool that plots two standard deviation bands above and below a moving average.

A mathematical formula that automatically sets token prices based on supply.

Debt securities where you lend money to a government or corporation in exchange for regular interest payments and your principal back at maturity.

A reward offered by crypto projects for completing specific tasks like finding bugs, writing code, or creating content.

When price moves above a resistance level or below a support level with strong volume.

Paying token holders to vote in a specific way on governance proposals or emissions.

A protocol that lets you move tokens between different blockchains.

DeFi protocols built on or around Bitcoin, enabling lending, borrowing, and yield on BTC without converting to other tokens.

A reward program where protocols pay security researchers for finding and responsibly disclosing vulnerabilities.

A sustained period of rising prices and positive market sentiment.

In ERC-4337 account abstraction, a bundler collects UserOperations from a mempool and submits them to the blockchain in a single transaction.

Permanently removing tokens from circulation by sending them to an unusable wallet address.

When a protocol uses its revenue to buy its own token from the open market and then burns it, permanently reducing supply.

The compiled, machine-readable version of a smart contract that runs on the blockchain's virtual machine.

A system's ability to keep functioning correctly even when some participants are acting maliciously or failing.

The data sent along with an Ethereum transaction that tells a smart contract what function to call and with what parameters.

A chart element showing price movement over a specific time period.

How effectively a protocol or strategy uses deposited capital to generate returns.

When investors give up and sell at any price after a prolonged downturn.

Borrowing in a low-interest-rate asset to invest in a higher-yielding one, profiting from the difference.

A digital form of a country's official currency issued and controlled by its central bank.

A modular blockchain that focuses exclusively on data availability and consensus, leaving execution to other chains.

A mobile-first blockchain focused on making crypto payments accessible, especially in developing countries.

The ability of a blockchain to process transactions without any single party being able to block or reverse them.

A cryptocurrency exchange run by a company that holds your funds and matches orders.

In crypto culture, someone who makes bold, confident moves that pay off.

Technology that lets users interact with multiple blockchains without knowing or caring which chain they're on.

The most widely used oracle network in crypto.

A mechanism that halts trading when prices move too much too fast.

The number of tokens currently available and tradeable in the market.

A period during token vesting where no tokens are released, followed by a large unlock at the cliff date.

Malware that monitors your clipboard and replaces copied crypto addresses with the attacker's address.

A cryptocurrency wallet that's not connected to the internet.

Assets you put up as security when borrowing.

A basic good used in commerce that's interchangeable with other goods of the same type.

Following the laws and regulations that apply to financial activities, including crypto.