- Altcoin
- Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
- All-time high (ATH)
- The highest price an asset has ever reached.
- Bear market
- A long period of falling prices and negative sentiment.
- Bull market
- A long period of rising prices and positive sentiment.
- Blockchain
- A shared public ledger where transactions are grouped into blocks and linked in order.
- Block height
- The number of blocks in a blockchain since the first block.
- Candlestick
- A chart bar that shows the open, high, low and close for a period.
- Centralized exchange (CEX)
- A company-run platform such as Binance or Coinbase where you trade crypto.
- Cold wallet
- A wallet kept offline, such as a hardware wallet, for better security.
- Consensus
- The method a blockchain uses to agree on which transactions are valid.
- DCA (dollar-cost averaging)
- Buying a fixed amount at regular intervals instead of all at once.
- DeFi
- Decentralized finance: lending, trading and other services run by smart contracts.
- DEX
- A decentralized exchange where users swap tokens from their own wallets.
- Dominance
- Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market cap.
- Doji
- A candle where open and close are almost equal, showing indecision.
- ETF
- An exchange-traded fund; spot Bitcoin ETFs hold real bitcoin for stock-market investors.
- Fear & Greed Index
- A 0–100 gauge of crypto market sentiment.
- Fiat
- Government-issued money such as the US dollar or the euro.
- FOMO
- Fear of missing out: buying in a rush because prices are rising.
- Funding rate
- Periodic payments between long and short traders that keep perpetual futures near the spot price.
- Futures
- Contracts to buy or sell an asset at a set price, often traded with leverage.
- Gas fee
- The fee paid to process a transaction on networks like Ethereum.
- Halving
- The event, about every four years, that cuts Bitcoin's new supply per block in half.
- Hash rate
- The total computing power securing a proof-of-work network.
- HODL
- Holding crypto for the long term instead of trading.
- Hot wallet
- A wallet connected to the internet, convenient but less secure.
- Leverage
- Borrowed funds that increase position size, gains and losses.
- Limit order
- An order to buy or sell only at a chosen price or better.
- Liquidation
- When an exchange force-closes a leveraged position because margin is too low.
- Liquidity
- How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving the price.
- Long
- A position that profits when the price rises.
- Market cap
- Price multiplied by circulating supply.
- Market order
- An order that buys or sells immediately at the best available price.
- Memecoin
- A token driven mainly by internet culture and community hype.
- Mining
- Using computers to secure a proof-of-work blockchain and earn new coins.
- Open interest
- The total value of open futures contracts that are not yet closed.
- Order book
- The list of buy and sell orders on an exchange at each price.
- Perpetual futures
- Futures contracts with no expiry date, kept near spot by the funding rate.
- Private key
- The secret that controls a wallet; anyone who has it controls the funds.
- Proof of stake
- Consensus where validators lock up coins to secure the network.
- Proof of work
- Consensus where miners use computing power to secure the network.
- Pump and dump
- A scam where a price is pushed up artificially and then sold off.
- Resistance
- A price area where selling has stopped rises before.
- Rug pull
- A scam where project creators take investors' money and disappear.
- Seed phrase
- 12 or 24 words that can restore a wallet; never share them.
- Self-custody
- Holding your own keys instead of leaving coins on an exchange.
- Short
- A position that profits when the price falls.
- Short squeeze
- A fast rally that forces short sellers to buy back and close.
- Slippage
- The difference between the expected price and the price you actually get.
- Smart contract
- Code on a blockchain that runs automatically when conditions are met.
- Spot
- Buying or selling the actual asset for immediate delivery.
- Stablecoin
- A token designed to keep a steady value, usually 1 US dollar.
- Stop-loss
- An order that closes a trade at a set price to limit losses.
- Support
- A price area where buying has stopped falls before.
- Volatility
- How much and how quickly a price moves.
- Volume
- The amount of an asset traded in a period.
- Whale
- A person or entity holding a very large amount of crypto.
