Glossary
139 terms to sharpen your crypto trading knowledge
Seed
A seed phrase is a sequence of 12 to 24 words that serves as the master backup for a cryptocurrency wallet, capable of fully recovering all associated keys and funds on any compatible device.
Segregated Witness (SEGWIT)
Segregated Witness (SegWit) is a Bitcoin protocol upgrade that separates signature data from transaction data, increasing throughput, reducing fees, and enabling second-layer solutions like the Lightning Network.
Sentiment
Sentiment in trading refers to the overall mood of market participants — whether bullish or bearish — and is used as an indicator of how emotions and psychology are influencing price behavior.
Smart Contract
Smart contracts are self-executing programs on a blockchain that automatically enforce the terms of an agreement when predefined conditions are met, eliminating the need for intermediaries.
Stablecoin
Stablecoins are cryptocurrencies engineered to maintain a stable value relative to a reference asset like the US dollar, providing a low-volatility medium of exchange and store of value within the crypto ecosystem.
Support
Support is a price level in technical analysis where buying interest is strong enough to halt or reverse a price decline, acting as a floor that the market repeatedly bounces from.
Sybil Attack
A Sybil attack occurs when a single attacker creates multiple fake network identities to gain outsized influence over a peer-to-peer network, threatening decentralization and consensus integrity.
Taker
A taker is a trader whose order is immediately matched against an existing order book entry, consuming market liquidity and typically incurring a higher fee than a maker who provides liquidity.
Technical Indicators
Technical indicators are mathematical tools applied to price and volume data that help traders identify trends, momentum, and potential trade signals on a cryptocurrency chart.
Ticker
A ticker displays real-time market data for a cryptocurrency, including its current price, 24-hour volume, and price change, and the ticker symbol is the short abbreviation used to identify the asset across exchanges.
Token
A cryptocurrency token is a digital asset built on an existing blockchain platform, serving purposes ranging from utility and governance to representing ownership of real-world assets.
Token Burn
Token burning permanently removes cryptocurrency tokens from circulation by sending them to an unspendable address, reducing total supply and potentially increasing the value of remaining tokens.
User Interface (UI)
A user interface (UI) is the visual layer of a software application through which users interact with its features, playing a critical role in how efficiently and accurately traders can operate on a platform.
Verification Code
A verification code is a time-sensitive, randomly generated number used as a second authentication factor, helping protect cryptocurrency accounts from unauthorized access even if a password is compromised.
Virtual Machine
A virtual machine (VM) is a software-based computer environment; in crypto, the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the sandboxed runtime that executes smart contracts identically across all network nodes.
Volatility
Volatility in cryptocurrency markets refers to the rapid and often dramatic fluctuations in asset prices, creating both significant trading opportunities and heightened financial risk.
Volume
Volume is the total amount of a cryptocurrency traded within a given period, serving as a key measure of market activity and liquidity that helps traders assess the strength and reliability of price movements.
Wallet
A cryptocurrency wallet stores the private keys needed to access and control your funds on the blockchain, available in hot (internet-connected) and cold (offline) forms with different trade-offs between convenience and security.
Wick
A wick is the thin line extending above or below a candlestick body on a trading chart, representing the highest and lowest prices reached during a period and signaling where price was rejected.