Crypto Glossary
Plain-English definitions of the crypto terms you’ll meet across BitAdvent — from blockchain and stablecoins to gas, staking and DYOR. Honest and jargon-free.
Altcoin Beginner
An altcoin is any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin — short for "alternative coin". Read more →
All-Time High (ATH) Beginner
An all-time high is the highest price an asset has ever traded at. Read more →
Bear Market Beginner
A bear market is an extended stretch of falling prices and gloom. Read more →
Bitcoin Beginner
Bitcoin is the original and biggest cryptocurrency: a decentralised digital money capped at 21 million coins. Read more →
Blockchain Beginner
A blockchain is a shared record of transactions that many computers keep in sync, rather than a single company holding the books. Read more →
Bull Market Beginner
A bull market is an extended stretch of rising prices and optimism. Read more →
DAO Advanced
A DAO (decentralised autonomous organisation) is a group run by token-holder votes and smart contracts instead of a traditional management team. Read more →
DeFi Intermediate
DeFi, or decentralised finance, means financial services such as lending, trading and earning yield, run on public blockchains without a bank or broker in the middle. Read more →
DYOR Beginner
DYOR means "do your own research" — a nudge to check things for yourself before acting. Read more →
Ethereum Beginner
Ethereum is the leading platform for programmable blockchains, with ether (ETH) as its native asset. Read more →
Fear & Greed Index Beginner
The Fear & Greed Index boils crypto market sentiment down to a single 0–100 score, from extreme fear to extreme greed. Read more →
Fiat Currency Beginner
Fiat is government-issued money — like the pound, dollar or euro — that is not backed by a physical commodity. Read more →
Gas Intermediate
Gas is the fee you pay to get a transaction processed on Ethereum, priced in a tiny unit of ether called gwei. Read more →
Halving Intermediate
The Bitcoin halving is a scheduled event, about every four years, that cuts the reward miners earn per block in half. Read more →
Liquidity Intermediate
Liquidity describes how easily you can buy or sell an asset without shifting its price much. Read more →
Market Capitalisation Beginner
Market cap is a coin’s price multiplied by how many coins are in circulation — a rough measure of its overall size. Read more →
Mining Intermediate
Mining is using computing power to validate transactions and secure a proof-of-work chain such as Bitcoin. Read more →
NFT Beginner
An NFT (non-fungible token) is a one-of-a-kind blockchain token used to represent ownership of a specific item, like a piece of art. Read more →
Private Key Intermediate
A private key is the secret that controls a wallet and signs off on its transactions. Read more →
Smart Contract Intermediate
A smart contract is code stored on a blockchain that runs by itself once its conditions are met. Read more →
Stablecoin Beginner
A stablecoin is a crypto token built to hold a steady value, most often pegged to the US dollar. Read more →
Staking Intermediate
Staking is locking up a proof-of-stake coin to help secure its network, earning a reward for doing so. Read more →
Volatility Beginner
Volatility is a measure of how sharply and quickly a price moves. Read more →
Wallet Beginner
A crypto wallet is the software or hardware that holds the keys you use to access and spend your coins. Read more →