📚 Crypto Glossary
Trading
ATH
All-Time High — the highest price ever reached by a cryptocurrency.
Bear Market
A prolonged period of falling prices in a market, typically defined as a decline of 20% or more from recent highs.
Bull Market
A prolonged period of rising prices, typically characterized by optimism and investor confidence.
CEX
Centralized Exchange — a platform where crypto trading is facilitated by a central organization that acts as an intermediary.
FOMO
Fear Of Missing Out — the anxiety that others are profiting from an opportunity while you are not.
FUD
Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt — negative information spread to influence market sentiment, often deliberately.
Market Cap
The total market value of a cryptocurrency, calculated by multiplying the current price by the circulating supply.
Whale
An individual or entity that holds a very large amount of cryptocurrency, capable of influencing market prices.
Concepts
Airdrop
Free distribution of tokens to wallet addresses, usually as a marketing strategy or reward for early users.
DAO
Decentralized Autonomous Organization — an organization represented by rules encoded as a computer program, controlled by token holders.
DeFi
Decentralized Finance — a system of financial applications built on blockchain networks that operate without intermediaries like banks or brokerages.
NFT
Non-Fungible Token — a unique digital asset verified using blockchain technology that represents ownership of a specific item or piece of content.
Staking
Locking up cryptocurrency tokens to support a blockchain network operations and earning rewards in return.
Tokenomics
The economic model and incentive structure behind a cryptocurrency token — includes supply, distribution, and utility.
Basics
Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin. Short for "alternative coin".
Blockchain
A distributed ledger technology that records transactions across a network of computers in a way that makes them tamper-proof and transparent.
Gas Fee
A transaction fee paid to network validators for processing transactions on a blockchain like Ethereum.
Smart Contract
Self-executing contracts with the terms of the agreement directly written into code, running on a blockchain.
DeFi
Bridge
A protocol that enables the transfer of assets between different blockchain networks.
DEX
Decentralized Exchange — a peer-to-peer marketplace where crypto transactions occur directly between traders without intermediaries.
Liquidity Pool
A collection of funds locked in a smart contract that provides liquidity for decentralized exchanges and lending protocols.
TVL
Total Value Locked — the total value of assets staked or locked in a DeFi protocol, used as a metric of protocol health.
Yield Farming
The practice of staking or lending crypto assets to generate high returns or rewards in the form of additional cryptocurrency.
Security
Cold Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet that is not connected to the internet, providing maximum security for long-term storage.
Hot Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet connected to the internet, convenient for frequent transactions but less secure.
Rug Pull
A scam where developers abandon a project after attracting investor funds, making the tokens worthless.
Seed Phrase
A series of 12 or 24 words that can be used to recover a cryptocurrency wallet. Must be kept secret and secure.
Culture
Degen
Short for "degenerate" — a term for risky crypto traders who invest in speculative coins and high-risk strategies.
HODL
Hold On for Dear Life — a crypto community slang for holding onto assets despite market volatility.
Technical
Layer 2
A secondary framework built on top of an existing blockchain (Layer 1) to improve scalability and transaction speed.
📖 30+ terms and growing. Missing something? Suggest a term.