- Altcoin
- Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
- Blockchain
- A shared, tamper-resistant ledger of transactions.
- Cold wallet
- A wallet kept offline, such as a hardware device.
- DeFi
- Decentralised finance: lending and trading run by smart contracts instead of banks.
- DYOR
- "Do your own research" — verify before you invest.
- Gas fee
- The cost paid to process a transaction on a network like Ethereum.
- Halving
- A scheduled cut in new Bitcoin issued per block, roughly every four years.
- Market cap
- Price × circulating supply; a rough measure of a coin's size.
- Memo / destination tag
- An extra ID some networks (XRP, etc.) need to credit the right account.
- NFT
- A non-fungible token: a unique digital item recorded on a blockchain.
- Ponzi scheme
- Fraud that pays earlier investors with newer investors' money.
- Private key
- The secret that controls a wallet. Never share it.
- Recovery phrase
- 12–24 words that can restore a wallet; equivalent to the private key.
- Rug pull
- When project creators abandon it and run off with investors' funds.
- Stablecoin
- A token designed to hold a steady value, often $1 (e.g. USDT, USDC).
- Staking
- Locking coins to help secure a network in exchange for rewards.
- Volatility
- How sharply a price moves up and down.
- Whale
- A holder with a very large amount of a coin.
