A
Altcoins: Alternative Coins, or Altcoins, are a reference to all crypto assets other than BTC and ETH. Typically this term is used to describe coins that are more speculative.
Attestation Ledger: A formal record that provides record and verification of individual transactions.
B
Bitcoin (BTC): The first and most widely recognized cryptocurrency, often treated as the reference asset for the broader crypto market.
Block: A batch of transactions added to the blockchain.
Blockchain: The shared digital ledger that records transactions across a decentralized network.
Block Explorer: A website or tool that lets you search and view blockchain activity (such as transactions, blocks, and addresses).
C
Central Bank Digital Currency: A type of digital money designed to maintain a stable value, often pegged to the US dollar. Think of it as digital cash for instant payments and settlements.
Cold Storage: Keeping crypto in a wallet or method that is not connected to the internet (such as certain hardware devices), which can reduce hacking risk but can be less convenient to use.
Consensus: The set of rules the network uses to agree on which transactions are valid.
Consensus Mechanism: The method a blockchain uses to agree on which transactions are valid and what gets added to the ledger (for example, proof of work or proof of stake).
Cryptocurrency: Digital asset used on a blockchain network that can be transferred between parties without a central issuer.
Crypto Exchange: A platform where customers can buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies (and sometimes store them).
Crypto ETP (Exchange-traded product): A market-traded investment that can provide exposure to a digital asset like bitcoin without directly holding the coin in a personal wallet.
Crypto Futures: Contracts that set an agreement to buy or sell a crypto asset at a later date, often used for trading, hedging, or gaining exposure without owning the asset directly.
Custody: Who holds and safeguards the crypto and the keys needed to access it, such as a financial institution, an exchange, or the investor themselves.
D
DeFi (Decentralized finance): Decentralized, autonomous financial applications that provide financial services, including payments, lending, trading, insurance, and asset management.
Delegation: In some proof-of-stake networks, assigning your staking power to a validator without handing over ownership of your crypto, so you may be able to earn rewards.
Digital Commodity: Any fungible asset that can be exclusively possessed and transferred, person to person, without necessary reliance on an intermediary, is recorded on a cryptographically secured public distributed ledger, and is not a security, permitted payments stablecoin, banking deposit, commodity, or commodity derivative.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT): Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is a distributed system that records and tracks Digital Asset transactions.
E
Ethereum (ETH): A blockchain network that supports smart contracts and decentralized applications; ETH is the network’s native cryptocurrency.
Crypto Exchanges: Online marketplaces where buyers and sellers trade cryptocurrencies (and sometimes related products) by submitting orders that are matched electronically. Depending on the platform, an exchange may offer services such as price quotes, order types (e.g., market or limit orders), custody/wallet services, and fiat on- and off-ramps (converting between crypto and traditional currency). Crypto exchanges can operate under different regulatory models and may vary materially in fees, liquidity, asset availability, and customer protections.
F
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt): Negative news or messaging, sometimes misleading, intended to create anxiety and influence sentiment or prices.
H
Hash: A cryptographic “fingerprint” created by running data through a hash function, producing a fixed-length output (often shown as a string of letters and numbers). In crypto, hashes are widely used to help secure blockchains—for example, to link blocks together, verify data integrity (detect tampering), and, in some networks, support mining/consensus.
Hot Storage: Holding crypto in an internet‑connected wallet or service, which is convenient for transactions but generally higher risk than offline storage.
I
Initial Coin Offering (ICO): A fundraising method where a project sells newly issued crypto tokens to raise capital (often before the network or product is fully launched).
L
Liquidity Pool: A pool of tokens locked in a smart contract to support trading on a decentralized exchange; liquidity providers may earn fees.
M
Meme Coins: Meme Coins are cryptocurrencies that originated from internet memes. They are highly volatile and speculative assets.
Mining: In proof‑of‑work networks, using computing power to validate transactions and add new blocks, typically in exchange for rewards.
N
Non-Fungible Token (NFT): Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are digital representations of unique, non-replaceable items. Common NFTs include digital collectibles.
P
Passphrase (Seed Phrase) / Recovery Phrase: A list of words that can restore access to a crypto wallet. Anyone who has it can take control of the wallet, so it must be kept private and secure.
Private Key: A secret code used to sign transactions and prove ownership/control of crypto. Anyone with the private key can control the assets.
Proof of Stake (PoS): A consensus method where validators stake crypto to help secure the network and validate blocks.
Proof of Work (PoW): A consensus method where miners compete to solve computational puzzles to add new blocks.
Public Key / Wallet Address: A shareable string of letters and numbers used to receive crypto, similar to an account number.
R
Reward: Payments issued by the network to participants who validate transactions correctly.
S
Satoshi (sat): The smallest unit of bitcoin (BTC). One bitcoin is divisible into 100,000,000 satoshis, so 1 satoshi = 0.00000001 BTC. Satoshis are commonly used to quote and transfer very small amounts of bitcoin, similar to how cents are used for dollars.
Smart Contract: A Smart Contract is software that is deployed on distributed ledger technology. It can encode business logic, workflows, and asset lifecycle events in a programmatic way (i.e. an exchange or automated dividend payment).
Solana (SOL): A blockchain network; SOL is the token used to pay fees and participate in network functions such as staking.
Stablecoin: A type of digital money designed to maintain a stable value, often pegged to the US dollar. Think of it as digital cash for instant payments and settlements.
Staking: Committing (locking or delegating) crypto to support a proof-of-stake network in exchange for potential rewards.
T
Token: In the realm of Digital Assets, a token is the unit representation of an asset registered on a Distributed Ledger Technology. These tokens adhere to specific data and functional standards.
Tokenized Alternatives: Ownership rights in traditional, often illiquid, alternative investment assets represented or issued as digital tokens on blockchain.
Tokenized Bonds: Traditional debt instruments represented as verifiable blockchain tokens.
Tokenized Commodities: Traditional commodities represented as verifiable blockchain tokens.
Tokenized Deposits: Tokenized representations of commercial bank deposits, governed by existing banking regulations, issued by IDI’s, able to pay interest, and cannot be held in non-custodial wallets.
Tokenized Equities: Tokenized versions of exchange traded equity securities, specifically National Market System (NMS) equity instruments, conferring identical rights of ownership as certificated shares.
Tokenized Funds: Tokenized funds are interest-bearing investment funds whose ownership is represented by digital tokens on a blockchain.
Transaction Fee (network fee or gas fee): A fee paid to process and confirm a crypto transaction on a blockchain network, which can change based on network activity.
V
Validation: The process of checking and approving transactions and enforcing the rules of the network.
Validator: A participant in a proof-of-stake network that helps confirm transactions and add new blocks, often in return for rewards.
Volatility: How much an asset’s price moves up or down over time. Crypto prices are often more volatile than traditional assets.
W
Wallet: A digital asset wallet is a software application or a dedicated hardware device that lets a user interact with a blockchain network by generating and safeguarding cryptographic credentials (private keys) and using them to sign transactions.
A wallet does not ‘store’ the digital assets; the assets remain recorded on the distributed ledger. The wallet stores the keys that provide control and enable movement (transferability) of those on-chain assets.