The terms and definitions below have been listed to help you navigate the crypto discourse which is not always simple to follow:
Term |
Definition |
|
| Airdrop | The process where a cryptocurrency project distributes some of its tokens to the wallets of some of its users free of charge. | |
| Altcoin | Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin (and by some accounts Ether). | |
| Ask | A sell order that stipulates the price a trader is willing to sell for along with the quantity the trader is putting up for sale (also known as an 'offer'). | |
| ATH | All-time high (ATH), generally in reference to the price of a crypto-asset. | |
| Bear market | A market in which prices are falling. | |
| Bearish | Expecting prices to decline. | |
| Bid | A buy order that stipulates the price a trader is willing to pay along with the quantity the trader is willing to purchase. | |
| Bull market | A market in which prices are rising. | |
| Bullish | Expecting prices to increase. | |
| Crypto-asset | A digital asset that utilizes cryptography and exists on a blockchain or distributed ledger. Crypto-assets include cryptocurrencies, crypto-tokens (otherwise known simply as tokens). | |
| Fiat | Fiat currency (or just “fiat”) refers to government-issued currency which is not backed by a commodity such as gold. Examples include all the government currencies you can think of such as the dollar, rand, yen and euro. | |
| FOMO | Fear of missing out (FOMO). | |
| Fork | A situation that results when a blockchain changes its governance rules or history. A fork is often used to add new features to a blockchain or to repair a technical issue. Forks are often not contentious and gain widespread community support. Sometimes forks are more contentious and result in the blockchain split, leading to two different chains with their respective tokens. | |
| FUD | Fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD). | |
| HODL | Hold on for dear life (HODL), a term used when buying and holding for the long term. | |
| ICO | Initial Coin Offering (ICO), also known as a token sale. The sale of a token for other cryptocurrencies. | |
| Limit order | A buy or sell order that stipulates the price and quantity where a trader is willing to trade. Limit orders may not be matched if no other trader is willing to accept the price and quantity stipulated. | |
| Market cap | Short for "market capitalization" which is the total monetary value of a cryptocurrency. It is calculated by taking the number of coins in circulation multiplied by the price of a single unit of that coin. | |
| Market maker | Someone that places a buy or sell order on an exchange that is not immediately matched with any other order. They must wait for another market participant to match their buy or sell price. In other words, if they put in a buy order, the price they stipulate for their buy order is lower than the lowest price someone else is willing to sell at; and if they put in a sell order, the price they stipulate in their sell order is higher than the highest price someone else is willing to buy at. | |
| Market order | A buy or sell order that only stipulates the quantity to be bought or sold and which is executed immediately at the best available price. | |
| Market taker | Someone that places a buy or sell order that matches a current order on an exchange. As a result the market taker's order doesn't get placed on the orderbook. It gets matched with an existing (and opposite) order on the order book. | |
| Order book | A list of buy and sell orders on an exchange which is sorted by price. | |
| OTC | "Over-the-counter" trading occurs when two parties trade directly with each other without using an exchange. | |
| Post-only | A limit order that is not allowed to match with any other order on the order book. The post-only option is used to ensure you remain a market maker on the exchange. | |
| Private key | A unique combination of letters and numbers that enables you to spend your cryptocurrencies on a blockchain. Your private key is mathematically linked to your public address. | |
| Public key | A unique combination of letters and numbers that is used to generate a "public address" which represents an "account" on a blockchain that has a corresponding balance. | |
| TA | Technical analysis (TA). This is the process of examining price charts to predict what the next price movement will be. | |
| Token | Often used interchangeably with "cryptocurrency" or "crypto-asset" and represents a tradable asset on a blockchain. | |
| Wallet | A virtual place to store cryptocurrencies. Technically, this is a software programme that holds the private keys associated with your accounts (or public addresses) on blockchain. | |
| Whale | Someone that owns a very large amount of cryptocurrencies. | |