Crypto Glossary

A technical indicator consisting of three lines: a middle moving average and two outer bands that represent standard deviations above and below it.

A type of price chart that shows the open, close, high, and low prices for a specific time period.

An investment strategy where you buy a fixed dollar amount of crypto at regular intervals, regardless of the price.

The anxiety that you are missing a profitable opportunity, leading to impulsive buying decisions.

Negative information or sentiment spread about a cryptocurrency to drive its price down.

A crypto slang term meaning to hold onto your assets and not sell, even when prices drop.

Borrowing funds to increase the size of your trading position beyond what your own capital allows.

An order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency at a specific price or better.

The forced closing of a leveraged position when your losses reach the point where your margin can no longer cover them.

A trade where you buy a cryptocurrency expecting its price to go up.

A trend-following indicator that shows the relationship between two moving averages of a price.

The collateral you put up to open a leveraged trading position.

An order to buy or sell a cryptocurrency immediately at the current market price.

Practicing trading with virtual money instead of real funds.

A price level where a cryptocurrency tends to stop rising because selling pressure increases.

A momentum indicator that measures whether a cryptocurrency is overbought or oversold on a scale of 0 to 100.

A trading strategy where you profit from a price decline.

The difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual price you get.

An order that automatically sells your crypto when it drops to a certain price, limiting your losses.

A price level where a cryptocurrency tends to stop falling because buying pressure increases.

The act of exchanging one cryptocurrency for another, usually on a decentralized exchange.

An order that automatically sells your crypto when it reaches a certain price target, locking in your gains.

Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.

The highest price a cryptocurrency has ever reached.

The lowest price a cryptocurrency has ever reached.

A prolonged period when crypto prices are falling and investor sentiment is negative.

A prolonged period when crypto prices are rising and investor confidence is high.

A cryptocurrency exchange run by a company that acts as a middleman between buyers and sellers.

The strategy of spreading your investments across multiple different assets to reduce risk.

The total value of a cryptocurrency, calculated by multiplying the current price by the total number of coins in circulation.

The collection of all cryptocurrency assets you own.

A cryptocurrency designed to maintain a stable value, usually pegged 1:1 to a fiat currency like the US dollar.

A stablecoin issued by Circle and pegged 1:1 to the US dollar.

The largest stablecoin by market cap, issued by Tether Limited and pegged to the US dollar.

The total amount of a cryptocurrency traded over a specific period, usually 24 hours.

An individual or entity that holds a very large amount of cryptocurrency.

The first and most well-known cryptocurrency, created in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto.

A digital ledger that records transactions across a network of computers.

A protocol that allows you to move cryptocurrency between different blockchains.

A blockchain platform that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps).

The cost you pay to execute a transaction or run a smart contract on a blockchain like Ethereum.

An event that cuts the reward for mining new Bitcoin blocks in half, occurring roughly every four years.

A secondary network built on top of a main blockchain (Layer 1) to improve speed and reduce costs.

The process of using powerful computers to solve complex mathematical puzzles that verify and record transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain.

A unique digital token on a blockchain that represents ownership of a specific item, like art, music, or a collectible.

A service that feeds real-world data (like prices, weather, or sports scores) into blockchain smart contracts.

A consensus mechanism where validators lock up (stake) their crypto to earn the right to verify transactions and create new blocks.

A consensus mechanism where miners compete to solve computational puzzles to validate transactions and create new blocks.

A Layer 2 scaling solution that bundles (rolls up) many transactions into a single batch and submits them to the main blockchain.

A self-executing program stored on a blockchain that automatically runs when specific conditions are met.

A digital asset created on an existing blockchain, as opposed to a coin like Bitcoin that has its own blockchain.

The economic model behind a cryptocurrency, including its supply, distribution, inflation rate, and utility.

A distribution of free tokens to wallet addresses, usually as a marketing strategy or reward for early users.

The annualized rate of return on a crypto investment, without accounting for compounding.

The annualized rate of return on a crypto investment, including the effect of compounding.

An organization governed by smart contracts and community votes rather than a traditional management structure.

Short for Decentralized Finance.

A cryptocurrency exchange that operates without a central authority.

The process by which decisions are made in a decentralized protocol.

A loss that liquidity providers experience when the price of their deposited tokens changes compared to when they deposited them.

A collection of crypto funds locked in a smart contract that enables trading on decentralized exchanges.

The process of locking up your cryptocurrency to help secure a proof-of-stake blockchain network.

The total amount of cryptocurrency deposited in a DeFi protocol's smart contracts.

A DeFi strategy where you provide your crypto to protocols in exchange for rewards, often in the form of additional tokens.

A secret string of characters that gives you access to your cryptocurrency.

A string of characters that acts as your crypto address, similar to a bank account number.

A scam where developers create a crypto project, attract investors, and then suddenly withdraw all the funds, leaving holders with worthless tokens.

A set of 12 or 24 words that serves as the master backup for your crypto wallet.

A cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the internet, making it extremely resistant to hacking.

A physical device, similar to a USB drive, that stores your private keys offline.

A cryptocurrency wallet connected to the internet, such as a mobile app or browser extension.

A tool that lets you store, send, and receive cryptocurrency.