Crypto's vocabulary is half the entry barrier, so here it is, disarmed: the terms you'll keep meeting, each in a sentence or two of plain English. Where a term has a full lesson behind it, the link takes you there.

A
Address
The public identifier of a wallet — like an account number you can safely share to receive crypto. Derived from your keys; sharing it reveals nothing secret.
Airdrop
Free tokens distributed to wallets, usually as marketing or rewards for early users. Often legitimate, often taxable on arrival, and a favorite costume for scams — unsolicited "claim" links especially.
Altcoin
Loosely, any cryptocurrency that isn't Bitcoin. The word carries no judgment about quality — it covers everything from Ethereum to coins that won't exist next year.
APY
Annual percentage yield — the yearly return a platform advertises for staking or lending. Always ask where the yield comes from; the number is only as real as its source.
ATH
All-time high: the highest price an asset has ever reached. Its twin, ATL, is the all-time low.
B
Bear market
A long stretch of falling prices and fading optimism — crypto's "winter." See market cycles.
Blockchain
A shared record maintained by thousands of computers instead of one company — everyone can read it, no one can quietly rewrite it. Full lesson →
Bridge
A system that moves value between blockchains by locking coins on one side and minting an IOU ("wrapped" token) on the other. Useful, and historically crypto's biggest hack target. Full lesson →
Bull market
A sustained period of rising prices and rising greed. Routinely includes brutal 30%+ dips along the way. See market cycles.
C
CEX
Centralized exchange — a company-run marketplace like the ones in the exchange lesson. The "C" is the point: a business holds your coins while they're there.
Cold wallet
A wallet whose keys never touch the internet — usually a hardware device. Built for keeping, not moving. Full lesson →
Custodial / non-custodial
Custodial means someone else (typically an exchange) holds the keys to your crypto; non-custodial means you do. The whole "not your keys, not your coins" debate lives in this one word.
D
DeFi
Decentralized finance: bank-like services — trading, lending, interest — rebuilt as smart contracts with no company in the middle. Full lesson →
DEX
Decentralized exchange — a smart contract that swaps tokens directly from your own wallet, pricing trades against pooled user funds instead of matching buyers with sellers.
DYOR
"Do your own research" — crypto's most repeated and least explained advice. We explain it: the why and the actual checklist.
E
Ethereum / ETH
Ethereum is the blockchain that runs programs (smart contracts); ETH is its coin, needed to pay the network's fees. Full lesson →
Exchange
A marketplace for buying and selling crypto. While your coins sit there, your balance is an IOU from the company. Full lesson →
F
FDV
Fully diluted valuation: price × maximum supply — what a project would be worth if every future token already existed. A big gap between FDV and market cap means most of the supply hasn't hit the market yet. Full lesson →
Fiat
Government-issued money — euros, dollars, lira. Crypto people use the word neutrally; it just means "the regular kind."
FOMO
Fear of missing out — the urge to buy because everyone else seems to be winning. Strongest at exactly the moments it's most expensive to obey. See the market's mood.
Fork
A change to a blockchain's rules. When part of the network disagrees and keeps the old rules, the chain splits in two — which is how some well-known coins were born.
FUD
"Fear, uncertainty, and doubt" — dismissive slang for negative news. Caution: it's often used to wave away criticism that's simply true. Verify; don't vibe.
Fungible
Interchangeable — any unit is as good as any other, like euros. Money-like tokens are fungible; NFTs are deliberately not.
G
Gas
The fee paid to a network (in its own coin) for processing your transaction — the payment that keeps the maintaining computers running. Full lesson →
H
Halving
Bitcoin's scheduled event, roughly every four years, that cuts the reward for mining new blocks in half — slowing new supply toward the 21 million cap. How coins are created →
Hardware wallet
A small offline device that holds your keys and signs transactions internally, so the keys never touch a connected computer. Buy only directly from the manufacturer. Full lesson →
HODL
Holding through volatility instead of trading — born as a typo of "hold" in a 2013 forum post and adopted as a philosophy.
Hot wallet
A wallet on an internet-connected device — convenient for use, exposed by definition. The cash in your pocket, not the savings account. Full lesson →
K
KYC
"Know your customer" — the identity verification regulated exchanges must perform. Standard, not a red flag; its absence at a platform courting you is the red flag. See regulation.
L
Layer 2
A network built on top of a blockchain to make it faster and cheaper, settling back to the main chain for security. Full lesson →
Leverage
Trading with borrowed money, multiplying gains and losses alike. The single fastest documented way beginners lose everything. Full lesson →
Liquidation
The forced, automatic closure of a leveraged position once losses approach your deposit — the exchange protecting its loan with your money.
Liquidity
How easily an asset can be bought or sold without moving its price. Thin liquidity means even small trades cause big swings — common in small coins.
M
Market cap
Price per coin × circulating supply: what the market values the whole project at, and the only number that makes "cheap" and "expensive" meaningful. Full lesson →
Memecoin
A token whose main product is the joke or community around it, with value driven almost purely by attention. Some people trade them like lottery tickets; the lottery's usual math applies.
Mining
Competing computational work that adds new blocks to a proof-of-work blockchain, rewarded with newly created coins and fees. Full lesson →
N
NFT
Non-fungible token: a token where every unit is unique — a tamper-proof receipt pointing at a thing, which is not the same as owning the thing or its copyright. Full lesson →
P
Private key
The secret that controls a wallet's funds. Whoever holds it owns the coins — there is no "forgot password" flow. Your seed phrase is its human-readable backup.
Proof of stake
A security model where validators lock up their own coins as collateral and lose part of them (slashing) if they cheat. Ethereum's model since 2022. Full lesson →
Proof of work
A security model where adding blocks requires expensive computation, making attacks cost more than honesty. Bitcoin's model. Full lesson →
Pump and dump
A coordinated scheme: insiders hype a thin token to inflate its price ("pump"), then sell on the buyers they attracted ("dump"). Illegal in regulated markets; routine in unregulated corners. See scams.
R
Rug pull
A project whose creators drain the funds and vanish — the rug pulled from under holders. The research checklist exists largely to spot these early.
S
Satoshi
The smallest unit of bitcoin (one hundred-millionth), named for Bitcoin's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.
Seed phrase
The 12–24 words that can restore your entire wallet — the master key. Written down, stored offline, told to no one, ever. Full lesson →
Slashing
The penalty in proof-of-stake networks: validators who cheat or fail lose part of their locked coins.
Smart contract
A program on a blockchain that executes agreements automatically — a vending machine made of code, bugs included. Full lesson →
Stablecoin
A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar — only ever as good as what backs it. Full lesson →
Staking
Locking coins to help secure a proof-of-stake network in exchange for rewards. "Earn 5%" buttons skip the lockups, the slashing, and the custody question. Full lesson →
T
Token
A crypto asset that lives on another blockchain (usually as a smart contract) instead of having its own — as opposed to a coin, which does. Full lesson →
Tokenomics
How a token's supply is created, distributed, and unlocked over time — who got what, and when they can sell it to you. Full lesson →
V
Validator
A participant in a proof-of-stake network who locks coins, verifies transactions, and adds blocks — the staking counterpart of a miner.
Volatility
How violently a price swings. Crypto's defining trait: double-digit daily moves are unremarkable, and every strategy that survives here starts by accepting that.
W
Wallet
Software or hardware that holds your keys — not your coins, which live on the blockchain. Full lesson →
Whale
A holder large enough to move a market by trading. In small coins, a handful of whales can be the market.
Whitepaper
A project's founding document explaining what it builds and how. The first stop of any real research — and if it promises returns, the last.
Wrapped token
An IOU on one blockchain representing a coin locked on another — a cloakroom ticket whose worth depends entirely on the cloakroom. Full lesson →

Missing a term you keep running into? Tell us — this page grows with the questions.