Speak crypto fluently
The crypto glossary.
127 terms, zero jargon walls. Each one explained the way Omar would explain it on the show, so the headlines start making sense fast.
Keep typing, 127 terms are waiting in the wings.
0151% Attack
An attack where a single miner or group controls most of a network's computing power, letting them rewrite recent blocks and spend coins twice. Major networks make this wildly impractical: the hardware and energy cost a fortune, and honest mining pays better anyway.
02Address
A string of letters and numbers that works like an account number for receiving crypto. Share it freely with anyone who wants to pay you. Sending to the right address matters, since confirmed transactions settle permanently.
03Airdrop
Free tokens sent to a community, usually to reward early supporters or spread the word about a launch. Recipients claim from official announcements, and the surprise lands directly in their wallets.
04All Time High (ATH)
The highest price an asset has ever reached. Traders watch the all time high as a landmark: breaking through it signals strong momentum.
05Altcoin
Any cryptocurrency beyond Bitcoin. Thousands of altcoins exist, each exploring a different idea: faster payments, smart contracts, privacy, gaming. Altcoins are where the industry experiments.
06APR
Annual percentage rate: the yearly return on deposits or the yearly cost of borrowing, stated as a simple flat figure. Comparing APRs across platforms shows who pays best.
07APY
Annual percentage yield: the yearly return with compounding counted in. Reinvested rewards grow the base they earn on, so APY usually reads a little higher than APR for the same product.
08Base Fee
The minimum gas price every Ethereum transaction pays, set automatically by the network. Busy times raise it, quiet times lower it, and the protocol burns it, trimming ETH supply with every block.
09Bear Market
A long stretch of falling prices and quiet sentiment. Patient builders and buyers treat bear markets as their workshop: prices stay calm, crowds thin out, and the foundations for the next run get built.
10BIP
A Bitcoin Improvement Proposal: a design document where anyone can suggest upgrades to the Bitcoin network. The best ideas get reviewed in the open and, when the community agrees, become part of the software.
11Bitcoin (BTC)
The first cryptocurrency, launched in 2009. A fixed supply of 21 million coins, a public ledger anyone can inspect, and a network that has processed transactions around the clock since day one. Bitcoin remains the reference point for the entire market.
12Bitcoin ETF
An exchange traded fund that tracks the price of bitcoin. It lets investors hold bitcoin exposure inside ordinary brokerage accounts, and its daily inflows have become a major driver of demand.
13Block
A bundle of transactions grouped together and added to the blockchain. New blocks appear roughly every ten minutes on Bitcoin, each one permanently extending the shared record.
14Block Reward
New coins paid to the miner or validator that adds a block to the chain. Bitcoin's reward halves about every four years and sits at 3.125 BTC today, tightening new supply on a schedule everyone can read.
15Blockchain
A shared digital ledger copied across thousands of computers. Every participant holds the same record, so the history stays consistent and tamper resistant. It is the foundation under Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana and every network we cover.
16Brain Wallet
An early experiment where a wallet's seed phrase came from a memorized passphrase. Clever in theory, and a reminder from crypto history that human memory makes a fragile vault: modern wallets use randomly generated words.
17BRC-20
A token standard for Bitcoin, created in 2023, that uses Ordinals inscriptions to issue fungible tokens on the base chain. It showed the world that Bitcoin can host tokens too.
18Bridge
A protocol that moves assets between blockchains. Lock coins on one chain and receive matching tokens on another, then explore both ecosystems with the same funds.
19BTC Dominance
Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market value. Rising dominance means money favors the original; falling dominance means altcoins are having their season.
20Bull Market
A sustained climb in prices, powered by growing demand and bright sentiment. Bull markets reward patience and planning: set goals early so excitement rides along instead of taking the wheel.
21Burn
Sending tokens to an address nobody controls, removing them from circulation permanently. Projects burn tokens to tighten supply, and every burn stays visible on the public ledger.
22CBDC
A central bank digital currency: digital money issued directly by a central bank. Governments explore CBDCs as a modern form of cash, and crypto watchers study each design to see how much control stays with the holder.
23CEX
A centralized exchange: a company that runs the order book, holds customer funds, and usually asks for ID. CEXs offer the smoothest path from dollars to crypto, with deep markets and familiar support.
24Circulating Supply
The coins currently in public hands and trading freely. Multiply price by circulating supply and you get market cap, the standard measure of a coin's size.
25Coinbase Transaction
The first transaction in every block, which creates new coins and pays them to the miner or validator. It is the mint where fresh supply enters the world, visible to anyone on the chain.
26Cold Storage
Keeping private keys fully offline, on a hardware device or on paper, far from the internet. The distance brings serious protection, which is why long term holders swear by it.
27Cold Wallet
A wallet that keeps private keys disconnected from the internet, often on a dedicated hardware device or on paper. That distance from the network gives these keys strong protection, making cold storage the favored choice for long term holdings.
28Confirmation
A transaction gains a confirmation each time a new block includes it. More confirmations mean deeper settlement: after a handful, a payment is considered final.
29Consensus
The method a network uses to agree on the true state of the ledger. Bitcoin uses proof of work; many newer chains use proof of stake. Consensus is what lets thousands of strangers trust one shared record.
30Crypto Wallet
An app or device that holds the private keys proving ownership of your coins. The wallet holds keys; the coins themselves live on the blockchain, always reachable with those keys.
31Cryptocurrency
Digital money secured by cryptography and running on a blockchain. Anyone with an internet connection can hold it, send it, and verify it, around the clock and across borders.
32Custody
Whoever holds the keys controls the coins. Self custody means you guard your own keys; third party custody means a trusted company does it for you. Choose the setup that matches your skills and your peace of mind.
33DAO
A decentralized autonomous organization: a group coordinated by code and community votes rather than a management team. Members propose changes, vote with tokens, and the smart contracts carry out the results.
34Decentralization
Spreading control across many participants rather than concentrating it in one institution. The more decentralized a network, the harder it becomes for any single actor to alter its rules.
35DeFi
Decentralized finance: lending, trading and earning yield through smart contracts rather than banks. DeFi protocols run day and night, and anyone can inspect their code.
36Deflation
A rise in what a unit of money buys over time, often because supply stays fixed while demand grows. Savers enjoy the trend, and fixed supply currencies are built to ride it.
37DEX
A decentralized exchange: a trading venue that runs on smart contracts. Traders swap directly with the protocol while keeping custody of their own funds.
38DEX Aggregator
A tool that scans many decentralized exchanges and routes your trade through the best price. One search across every market beats checking them one by one.
39Difficulty
A measure of how hard Bitcoin mining is at any moment. The network retunes difficulty about every two weeks, keeping new blocks arriving steadily even as more miners join.
40Difficulty Adjustment
Bitcoin retunes mining difficulty about every two weeks, keeping new blocks arriving near every ten minutes. More miners join and the puzzles get harder; miners leave and the puzzles ease. The network breathes with its participants.
41Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)
Investing a fixed amount on a regular schedule, whatever the price. The habit smooths out volatility and suits patient long term savers.
42Double Spend
Spending the same digital coin twice. Blockchains solve it with a shared public ledger: once a coin moves, the whole network sees it, and any second attempt gets turned away by every node.
43Dust
A tiny amount of crypto, smaller than it costs to move. Dust gathers in wallets from leftover change, and many holders sweep it together when fees are low.
44EIP
An Ethereum Improvement Proposal: the formal way the community proposes upgrades to the Ethereum network. Major changes, like the Merge, traveled this path from idea to mainnet.
45ERC-20
The standard recipe for tokens on Ethereum, defining how they transfer and display. Most tokens you meet, from stablecoins to governance votes, follow this recipe.
46ETF
An exchange traded fund: a familiar wrapper that tracks an asset's price inside ordinary brokerage accounts. Crypto ETFs opened the door for retirement savers and cautious institutions to gain exposure.
47Ethereum (ETH)
The leading programmable blockchain. Developers build apps, stablecoins and financial tools on it, and ether (ETH) pays for every computation the network performs.
48Exchange
A marketplace for buying and selling crypto. Centralized exchanges hold your funds and offer deep order books; decentralized ones let you trade straight from your own wallet.
49Fiat
Money issued by governments, like dollars and euros, valuable because the state stands behind it. Crypto traders measure every coin against fiat, the yardstick of the traditional system.
50FOMO
The urge to buy because prices are rising and everyone is talking about it. Patient investors recognize the feeling and stick to their plan.
51Fork
A split in a blockchain's path. When the community disagrees on the rules, the chain can fork into two, each following its own version. Forks are how open networks settle their biggest debates.
52FUD
Fear, uncertainty and doubt, spread to shake confidence in a project or the market. Seasoned readers treat loud claims as a cue to check primary sources and keep perspective.
53Full Node
A computer running the complete blockchain software, checking every transaction and block against the rules. Full nodes are the network's independent auditors, keeping everyone honest.
54Funding Rate
A small periodic payment between traders on perpetual futures markets that keeps prices near the real thing. It flows from the popular side to the other, balancing the market automatically.
55Gas
The fee paid to process a transaction or run a smart contract on networks like Ethereum. Busy periods raise gas prices; quiet periods lower them.
56Gas Fee
The cost of running a transaction or smart contract on Ethereum, measured in gwei. Wallets estimate it for you, and quiet hours bring the bargains.
57Genesis Block
The very first block of a blockchain. Bitcoin's genesis block dates to January 2009, the quiet starting point of a multi trillion dollar industry.
58Gwei
A tiny unit of ether: one billionth of an ETH. Gas prices are quoted in gwei, which keeps everyday fee numbers friendly.
59Halving
Bitcoin cuts its block reward in half about every four years. The 2024 halving reduced the reward to 3.125 BTC per block, tightening new supply exactly as the original code prescribed.
60Hard Fork
A fork that changes the rules in ways old software cannot follow. Everyone upgrades or the chain splits for good. Bitcoin Cash parted from Bitcoin through a hard fork in 2017.
61Hardware Wallet
A small physical device that stores private keys in a secure chip, signing transactions while the keys stay isolated. It pairs the convenience of software with the protection of cold storage.
62Hash
A fixed length fingerprint produced from any piece of data. Bitcoin uses hashes everywhere: to link blocks, to secure addresses, and to run the mining lottery.
63Hash Rate
The total computing power securing a proof of work network. A rising hash rate means more miners competing and a stronger, more resilient chain.
64HODL
Crypto slang for holding through volatility. Born from a 2013 forum typo of "hold," it became a philosophy: think in years and let the days take care of themselves.
65Hot Wallet
A wallet connected to the internet, such as a phone app or browser extension. Hot wallets trade some protection for convenience, making them ideal for everyday spending money.
66Impermanent Loss
The gap between simply holding coins and parking them in a liquidity pool when prices move. Trading fees earned often cover the gap, and knowing the math keeps expectations realistic.
67Inflation
A slow decline in what a unit of money buys, usually because the supply keeps growing. Bitcoin's fixed cap makes it a living study in the opposite design.
68KYC
Know your customer: the identity checks exchanges run before you trade. Bring an ID, complete the steps, and the account opens. The process keeps platforms aligned with financial rules.
69L2
Shorthand for Layer 2: networks built on top of a main blockchain for faster, cheaper transactions. Lightning on Bitcoin and Arbitrum on Ethereum are the famous examples.
70Layer 2
A network built on top of a main blockchain to handle transactions faster and cheaper. Layer 2s settle their results back to the main chain, inheriting its security.
71Leverage
Borrowing to multiply a trade's size, and its outcomes. Leverage rewards precision and punishes guesswork, so most educators suggest mastering spot trading first.
72Lightning Network
Bitcoin's leading Layer 2 for instant payments. It routes small transactions through payment channels, opening the door to buying coffee with bitcoin.
73Liquid Staking
Staking your coins while keeping a liquid token that represents them, so your capital keeps working elsewhere. You earn staking rewards and stay flexible at the same time.
74Liquidity
How easily an asset can be bought or sold while its price stays steady. Deep liquidity means smooth trading; thin liquidity means prices swing on small orders.
75Liquidity Pool
A shared pot of tokens that lets traders swap instantly on a DEX. Depositors earn a cut of every trade, and the pool keeps markets flowing around the clock.
76Mainnet
The real blockchain, where transactions carry actual value. Graduating from testnet to mainnet is a project's big day, the moment the training wheels come off.
77Market Cap
A coin's price multiplied by its circulating supply. It gives a quick sense of scale: Bitcoin's market cap has grown to rival major global companies.
78Max Supply
The most coins that will ever exist. Bitcoin's max supply is 21 million, written into the code for anyone to verify.
79Mempool
The waiting area where unconfirmed transactions gather before miners include them in blocks. A crowded mempool means higher fees for priority inclusion.
80MEV
Maximal extractable value: the extra profit available to whoever orders transactions inside a block. Searchers and validators compete for it, and the ecosystem keeps inventing fairer ways to share it.
81Mining
The process of adding new blocks to a proof of work chain. Miners spend energy solving puzzles; winners earn fresh coins plus fees, and the network gains security.
82Mint
Creating a new token or NFT on a blockchain. Minting writes the asset into existence and assigns it to its first owner in the same stroke.
83Multisig
A wallet that asks several keys to approve before funds move. Teams and careful holders use multisig so one lost key stays a small problem instead of a disaster.
84NFT
A nonfungible token: a unique digital item recorded on a blockchain. NFTs represent art, collectibles, game items and event tickets, with ownership anyone can verify.
85Node
A computer running blockchain software and keeping a full copy of the ledger. Thousands of independent nodes make the network resilient: it keeps running as long as enough of them stay online.
86Onchain
Activity recorded directly on the blockchain: transactions, balances, smart contract calls. Onchain data is public and permanent, a goldmine for analysts.
87Oracle
A service that feeds outside facts, like prices or weather, into smart contracts. Blockchains cannot observe the world alone, so oracles serve as their trusted windows.
88Ordinals
A 2023 protocol that numbers individual satoshis and lets people inscribe data on them, bringing NFTs and tokens to Bitcoin. It proved the oldest chain still has new tricks to teach.
89Paper Wallet
A private key printed on paper and stored offline. Simple and sturdy, provided the paper stays dry, private, and far from cameras.
90Perpetuals
Futures contracts designed to run indefinitely, popular in crypto trading. Traders hold positions as long as they like, with funding rates keeping prices near spot.
91Private Key
A secret number that proves ownership of crypto funds. Whoever holds the private key controls the coins, so guarding it is the heart of crypto security.
92Proof of Stake
A consensus method where validators lock up coins as collateral to earn the right to confirm blocks. It secures networks like Ethereum with far less energy than mining.
93Proof of Work
The consensus method behind Bitcoin. Miners compete to solve puzzles, and the winning solution earns the next block. The energy spent becomes the network's security budget.
94Public Key
The address derived from a private key, safe to share with the world. Others use your public key to send you funds; only your private key can move them.
95Pump and Dump
A coordinated buying frenzy that drives a thin market up fast, followed by the organizers selling into the excitement. Patient traders recognize the pattern and stick to their plan.
96Replace by Fee
An option that lets you resend a slow Bitcoin transaction with a higher fee to speed it up. The network confirms the higher fee version and drops the original.
97Restaking
Putting already staked coins to work securing additional networks or services, earning extra rewards for the extra duty. Seasoned users study the added moving parts before they commit.
98Rollup
A Layer 2 that bundles many transactions into a single package for the main chain. Rollups inherit the base layer's security while cutting costs dramatically.
99Rug Pull
A launch where the creators vanish with the funds, leaving buyers holding tokens with little value. The community studies each case to sharpen its habits: know the team, read the code when you can, and start small.
100Runes
A 2024 token standard on Bitcoin for creating fungible tokens directly on the base layer. Launched alongside the 2024 halving, it gave Bitcoin a native home for new tokens.
101Satoshi (sats)
The smallest unit of bitcoin: one hundred millionth of a coin. As bitcoin's price climbs, pricing everyday things in sats keeps numbers friendly.
102Satoshi Nakamoto
The pseudonym behind Bitcoin's 2008 whitepaper and the 2009 network launch. The true identity remains a mystery, and the code plus the early writings speak for themselves.
103Seed Phrase
A list of 12 or 24 words that backs up a wallet. Anyone with the phrase can restore the funds, so it belongs on paper in a safe place, kept far from cameras and strangers.
104SegWit
A 2017 Bitcoin upgrade that reorganized how transaction data is stored, fitting more transactions into each block. It also fixed transaction malleability, paving the way for the Lightning Network.
105Sidechain
A separate blockchain linked to a main chain, running its own rules at its own speed. Assets travel between the two through a two way peg.
106Slashing
A proof of stake penalty where an offline or dishonest validator loses part of its staked coins. The penalty keeps validators attentive, and careful operators set up redundancies to stay in good standing.
107Smart Contract
Code that runs exactly as written on a blockchain. Smart contracts power DeFi lending, NFT sales and DAOs, executing agreements directly between the parties.
108Soft Fork
A fork that tightens the rules while staying compatible with older software. Upgraded nodes enforce the new rules while older nodes keep humming along, unaware of the change.
109Solana (SOL)
A high speed blockchain built for scale, processing thousands of transactions per second with tiny fees. Its speed made it a hub for trading apps, games and consumer crypto.
110Spot Trading
Buying and selling crypto for immediate delivery at the current price. Spot is the simplest trade there is: you pay, you receive, you own.
111Stablecoin
A cryptocurrency designed to hold a steady value, usually pegged to the dollar. Traders use stablecoins as calm harbors during volatility and as fast rails for global payments.
112Staking
Locking coins with a proof of stake network to help secure it, earning rewards in return. It turns idle holdings into productive ones.
113Taproot
A 2021 Bitcoin upgrade that made complex transactions look like simple ones, improving privacy and efficiency. Smart contract style spending on Bitcoin got cleaner and cheaper.
114Testnet
A practice blockchain where developers try ideas with valueless coins. Break things here, polish them up, then ship to the real network with confidence.
115Token
A digital asset issued on an existing blockchain. Where coins like BTC power their own networks, tokens ride on top: stablecoins, governance votes and loyalty points are all tokens.
116Tokenomics
The economics of a token: its supply, its distribution, and what gives it purpose. Sound tokenomics align the team's incentives with the holders'.
117Transaction Fee
A small payment attached to each transaction, rewarding the miners or validators who include it. Higher fees buy faster confirmation when the network is busy.
118TVL (Total Value Locked)
The total assets deposited in a DeFi protocol. Rising TVL signals growing trust and usage: it is the closest thing DeFi has to a popularity score.
119UTXO
Unspent transaction output: the Bitcoin way of tracking coins. Your balance is a collection of these outputs, and each payment spends some while creating new ones as change.
120Validator
A participant that confirms transactions on a proof of stake network. Validators stake collateral, follow the protocol's rules, and earn rewards for honest work.
121Vesting
A schedule that releases tokens gradually over time instead of all at once. Teams and investors receive their allocations piece by piece, which aligns everyone around the long term.
122Wei
The smallest unit of ether: one quintillionth of an ETH. Developers count in wei, and everyone else uses gwei and ETH for friendly numbers.
123Whale
A holder with a very large position. Whale movements draw attention because big orders can shift thin markets, while deep markets absorb them smoothly.
124Whitepaper
The founding document of a crypto project. Bitcoin's 2008 whitepaper laid out electronic cash for the internet age in nine pages and launched an industry. Reading a project's whitepaper remains the fastest way to understand its vision.
125Yield
The return earned by putting crypto to work: staking rewards, lending interest, liquidity incentives. DeFi turned yield into a whole landscape of opportunity.
126Yield Farming
Moving crypto between DeFi protocols to earn the best available rewards. Farmers compare rates, mind the fees, and harvest often.
127Zero Knowledge Proof
A cryptographic method that proves a statement is true while revealing nothing else. Rollups use them to verify thousands of transactions at once, bringing privacy and scale together.