Glossar

Anti-money-laundering rules and procedures.

Under MiCA, a crypto asset that references several currencies, commodities or other assets.

The write-down or conversion of a failing bank's liabilities, including depositors' balances above the guaranteed amount, to absorb losses.

A balance held at a commercial bank; legally a claim against the bank, not the same thing as cash.

A distributed ledger in which transactions are recorded in cryptographically linked blocks maintained by a network of nodes.

A service or protocol for moving assets, or representations of them, between blockchains.

The observation that newly created money benefits those who receive it first, changing relative prices and the distribution of wealth.

Government restrictions on moving money across borders or withdrawing it from banks.

Crypto-asset service provider: the MiCA category for exchanges, brokers, custodians and similar services, subject to authorisation and listed in the public…

Central bank digital currency: a digital form of central bank money for the public, such as the planned digital euro.

Cash and the reserves that banks hold at the central bank; the only money that is not a claim against a private institution.

Centralised exchange: operated by a company that holds customer funds. Decentralised exchange: a protocol that trades without central custody.

The native asset of its own blockchain, such as BTC on Bitcoin.

Custody in which private keys never touch an internet-connected device.

An indication of how well a rating value is supported by sources: high, medium, low or estimate.

The procedure by which a decentralised network agrees on the valid state of the ledger.

The degree to which the user, rather than an issuer, provider or authority, holds ultimate power over their assets: freeze risk, withdrawal, self-custody.

A wallet in which a provider holds the keys on the user's behalf; the user holds a claim, not the keys.

Decentralised finance: financial applications executed mainly through smart contracts.

The unit in which a price is expressed; the same asset history looks different in EUR, USD, gold or Bitcoin.

The decline from a peak to a subsequent trough; a measure of the downside experienced.

An index of the US dollar against a basket of major currencies, widely used as a gauge of dollar strength.

Under MiCA, a crypto asset that references one official currency and is issued by an authorised issuer; the regulatory category for euro and dollar…

Exchange-traded funds and products that give exposure to an asset through a traditional brokerage account.

State-issued money that is legal tender by law and not redeemable for a commodity, such as the euro or the US dollar.

The point from which a transaction is considered practically or technically irreversible.

A split or rule change in a blockchain protocol.

The best value measured for a criterion within a product category, shown next to each rating so that absolute and relative quality stay distinguishable.

The fee paid to execute a transaction or contract operation on certain networks.

The periodic halving of Bitcoin's block subsidy, which fixes its issuance schedule.

A dedicated physical device that keeps private keys isolated from internet-connected computers.

A fixed-length cryptographic fingerprint of data.

The length of time an asset is held, which in some jurisdictions determines whether or how a gain is taxed.

A sustained rise in the general price level; equivalently, a fall in the purchasing power of money.

Know your customer: identity verification by a regulated service provider.

The base blockchain and the scaling or execution layers built on top of it, such as Lightning on Bitcoin or rollups on Ethereum.

A layer-2 payment network for fast, low-cost Bitcoin transactions.

The availability of money and credit in an economy or market, as distinct from the market liquidity of a single asset.

The ability to buy or sell an asset in size without moving its price much.

Price per unit multiplied by circulating supply; a measure of size, not of liquidity or quality.

The EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation: the harmonised framework for crypto assets and their service providers in the EU.

The use of computing power to produce blocks and secure a proof-of-work network, rewarded with newly issued coins and fees.

Measures of how much money exists in an economy, from cash and sight deposits (M1) to broader liquid instruments (M3); definitions differ by currency area.

A setup that requires several keys to authorise a transaction, spreading risk across devices or people.

A computer that stores, verifies and relays a network's data according to the protocol rules.

Custody in which the user controls the keys directly, without an intermediary.

The route from fiat money into crypto, and back.

The list of open buy and sell orders on an exchange.

An additional secret combined with a seed phrase to derive a separate set of keys.

The intended link of a stablecoin to its reference value, and its breakdown.

The interest rate a central bank sets for lending to or accepting deposits from banks; the anchor of all other rates in a currency.

The secret cryptographic key that controls assets on a blockchain; whoever holds it holds the assets.

A consensus mechanism in which staked assets are the basis for validating blocks and securing the network.

A consensus mechanism in which computational work secures the network and produces blocks.

The publicly shareable counterpart to a private key, used to receive funds.

What a unit of money actually buys; the quantity that inflation erodes.

A central bank's expansion or contraction of its balance sheet by buying or selling securities, changing the reserves in the banking system.

A nominal interest rate minus inflation; positive when saving in a currency gains purchasing power, negative when it loses.

The assets backing a stablecoin, held by its issuer.

A sequence of words from which a wallet's keys can be restored; the master backup.

The difference between the expected and the executed price, usually caused by low liquidity or large orders.

Program code on a blockchain that executes defined rules automatically.

A recovery method in which designated contacts or devices can help restore access without a single seed phrase.

The difference between the best buy and sell prices.

A crypto asset designed to hold a stable value against a reference such as the US dollar or the euro.

Locking assets to participate in validation on a proof-of-stake network, usually for a reward.

An action, such as a disposal, swap or receipt of rewards, that triggers a tax consequence under a country's rules.

The extra yield investors demand to hold a long-term bond rather than rolling over short-term ones.

A digital asset issued on an existing blockchain, such as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum.

The economic rules of a token: supply, issuance, distribution and incentives.

The requirement that sender and recipient data accompany regulated crypto transfers; relevant when withdrawing from a licensed provider to self-custody.

Unspent transaction output: the accounting model Bitcoin uses to track who can spend what.

The intensity of price fluctuation over time.

Software, hardware or a procedure for managing keys and interacting with blockchain assets; a wallet holds keys, not coins.

A holder of a very large amount of an asset, whose actions can move the market.

The relationship between bond yields and their maturities for one issuer; its shape reflects expectations about growth, inflation and policy.

Cryptographic methods that prove a statement without revealing the underlying information.