Crypto glossary

An Australian Financial Services Licence — required for crypto platforms under the Digital Assets Framework from April 2027.

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Free tokens distributed to wallets, usually to promote a new project or reward early users. The ATO generally treats airdrops with value as ordinary income at receipt.

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The highest price an asset has ever reached. Every coin page on this site shows the ATH and how far today's price sits below (or above) it.

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Any cryptocurrency that isn't Bitcoin — from Ethereum down to coins minted this morning. A category so broad it needs sorting before it means anything.

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Australia's financial intelligence agency. Crypto exchanges serving Australians must be registered with it.

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A sustained period of falling prices and pessimism. In crypto, historical bear markets have routinely cut major coins 70–90% from their highs.

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The first cryptocurrency — a decentralised digital currency with a fixed supply of 21 million, running since 2009.

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A shared digital ledger that records transactions across many computers so no single party can alter the history.

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Infrastructure that moves coins between blockchains by locking them on one chain and issuing a representation on another. Historically one of crypto's most hacked components.

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A sustained period of rising prices and optimism — when everyone's a genius and risk appetite peaks. The setup, historically, for the bear that follows.

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Permanently destroying tokens by sending them to an unspendable address, reducing supply. Used by projects to make their token scarcer — genuinely or theatrically.

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The tax you pay on profit when disposing of crypto. Held over 12 months, individuals may get a 50% discount.

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A company-operated crypto exchange — you deposit funds, they custody them, an order book matches trades. Every AUSTRAC-registered Australian platform is a CEX.

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A crypto wallet kept offline (usually a hardware device) so hackers can't reach the keys via the internet.

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A fund traded on the stock exchange that holds crypto for you — Bitcoin exposure in an ordinary brokerage account, with fees instead of wallets and keys.

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Who holds the keys: custodial means a company (like an exchange) controls your crypto; non-custodial means you do.

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Financial services (lending, trading, earning) built on blockchains without banks as middlemen.

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An exchange that runs as a smart contract instead of a company — you trade from your own wallet against pooled liquidity. No sign-up, no custody, no support desk.

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Investing a fixed amount on a schedule regardless of price — smooths out volatility and removes timing stress.

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Amounts of crypto too small to be worth moving (the fee exceeds the value) — or, in a "dusting attack", tiny unsolicited transfers used to track and phish wallets.

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A blockchain that runs programmable "smart contracts", powering most DeFi and NFT activity.

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A coin issued by a crypto exchange, usually granting fee discounts — BNB, OKB, BGB and kin. Its fortunes are welded to the platform behind it.

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Fear of missing out — the urge to buy because prices are rising and everyone else seems to be getting rich. Historically the retail investor's most expensive emotion.

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Fear, uncertainty and doubt — crypto slang for negative information, real or manufactured. Note the dual use: genuine criticism gets dismissed as "FUD" too.

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What a coin's market cap would be if every token that will ever exist were circulating today. A large gap between FDV and market cap means unlocks are scheduled to arrive.

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The transaction fee paid to use the Ethereum network, priced in tiny units of ETH called gwei.

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The scheduled event (roughly every 4 years) where Bitcoin's new-coin issuance is cut in half. Next expected 2028.

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Crypto slang for holding long-term through volatility instead of trading (born from a 2013 forum typo of "hold").

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A scam token whose contract lets you buy but silently blocks you from selling. The chart only ever goes up — because no victim can exit.

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A wallet connected to the internet — convenient for spending, more exposed to attacks.

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"Know Your Customer" — the identity checks (ID, sometimes address) regulated exchanges must run before you trade.

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A network built on top of a base blockchain (usually Ethereum) that processes transactions faster and cheaper, settling back to the main chain for security.

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Trading with borrowed funds to amplify position size — and losses. The mechanism behind "liquidation": the exchange force-closes your position when losses approach your collateral.

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An order to buy or sell at a specific price or better — it waits on the order book until the market comes to it. Usually earns the cheaper "maker" fee.

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How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price. Thin liquidity means wide spreads, slippage, and prices that a single large order can shove around.

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Exchange fee model: "makers" add orders to the book (cheaper), "takers" fill existing ones (dearer).

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A coin's price multiplied by its circulating supply — the standard way to rank cryptocurrencies by size.

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An order that executes immediately at the best available price. Fast and certain to fill — but pays the "taker" fee and, in thin markets, a worse price than you saw quoted.

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A coin whose value proposition is community, momentum and jokes rather than technology — Dogecoin is the founding specimen. Candidly social objects with lottery-ticket risk profiles.

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Competing to add the next block to a proof-of-work blockchain by expending computing power, rewarded with new coins and fees. It's how Bitcoin issues supply and secures itself.

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A blockchain token proving ownership of a unique digital item.

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The live list of buy and sell orders at each price on an exchange. Its depth is the honest picture of a market's liquidity — and where makers and takers meet.

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Impersonation attacks — fake exchange emails, support agents, wallet pop-ups — designed to capture your login, 2FA codes or seed phrase. The most common way crypto is actually stolen.

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The secret code that controls your crypto. Whoever holds the private key owns the coins — lose it, lose them.

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A consensus system where validators lock up coins as collateral for the right to confirm transactions — misbehave and the stake is slashed. Ethereum's model; the basis of staking rewards.

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A consensus system where miners expend real energy to win the right to add blocks — making history expensive to rewrite. Bitcoin's model, and the source of its energy debate.

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Coordinated buying to inflate a small coin's price, marketed as organic momentum, followed by the organisers selling into the buyers they attracted. Illegal in regulated markets; endemic in unregulated ones.

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A scam where a project's creators hype a token, take investors' money and vanish. If returns sound guaranteed, it's a rug.

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The smallest unit of Bitcoin — one hundred-millionth of a BTC — named for Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator. Prices in sats make small amounts legible.

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A list of 12–24 words that backs up your wallet's private keys. Anyone with your seed phrase can take everything.

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Holding your own private keys in your own wallet, with no company in between. Total control, total responsibility — the trade-off at the heart of crypto.

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The difference between the price you expected and the price your trade actually filled at — the cost of moving a market that didn't have enough liquidity waiting at your price.

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A program stored on a blockchain that executes automatically when its conditions are met. The building block of DeFi, NFTs and most of crypto beyond simple payments.

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The gap between an exchange's buy and sell price — a hidden cost on top of the stated fee.

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A crypto token designed to hold a fixed value, usually pegged 1:1 to a currency like the US dollar.

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Locking crypto to help secure a proof-of-stake network in exchange for rewards — with tax and lock-up consequences.

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An order that triggers a sale when price falls to a set level — a pre-commitment to cut losses before emotions vote. In fast crypto moves, fills can land well below the trigger.

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A second login check beyond your password — ideally an authenticator app or hardware key, not SMS, which is vulnerable to SIM-swap attacks. The single highest-value security upgrade for exchange accounts.

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Trading with yourself to fake volume and activity — making a market look busier and more liquid than it is. Rife on unregulated venues and in NFT markets; a reason to distrust raw volume numbers.

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A holder large enough to move a market on their own. Whale wallets are watched obsessively because their sales can become everyone else's price action.

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