Reference
Glossary
Every term you will meet on this site and most you will meet elsewhere, defined in one sentence a beginner can read and then explained properly. Where a term is routinely misunderstood, the entry says how.
Consensus & Security 22Cryptography 8Custody & Access 15Data & Measurement 27DeFi 17Foundations 20Institutional Access 13Market Structure 28Regulation & Policy 19Risk & Failure Modes 23Scaling & Infrastructure 18Stablecoins 13Tokens & Supply 37
28 terms shown
| Term | Category | In one sentence |
|---|---|---|
| Arbitrage | Market Structure | Trading the same asset on two venues at the same time to capture a price difference between them. |
| Backwardation | Market Structure | A market condition in which futures prices sit below the current spot price, so the curve slopes downward over time. |
| Basis | Market Structure | The difference between a futures contract's price and the current spot price of the same asset. |
| Cascade Liquidation | Market Structure | A chain reaction in which forced closings push the price further, which then triggers more forced closings in the same direction. |
| Centralized Exchange | Market Structure | A company that runs a trading venue where customers deposit funds, and the company holds those funds and matches their orders. |
| Contango | Market Structure | A market condition in which futures prices sit above the current spot price, usually rising with the length of the contract. |
| Decentralized Exchange | Market Structure | A trading venue built from smart contracts where people trade directly from their own wallets without handing assets to a company. |
| Derivatives Market | Market Structure | Markets for contracts whose value comes from another asset's price, such as futures, perpetual futures, and options. |
| Funding Rate | Market Structure | A recurring payment between holders of long and short perpetual futures positions that keeps the contract's price near the spot price. |
| Leverage | Market Structure | Trading with borrowed funds or margin so that a position controls more value than the collateral actually posted. |
| Liquidation | Market Structure | The forced closing of a leveraged position by an exchange or protocol when the collateral behind it falls too low. |
| Liquidity | Market Structure | How easily an asset can be traded in size, quickly, without moving its price much. |
| Maker and Taker Fees | Market Structure | Exchange fees that charge less to orders which wait in the book and more to orders that trade immediately against them. |
| Mark Price | Market Structure | The reference price a derivatives venue uses to value open positions and decide liquidations, drawn from several outside spot markets. |
| Market Depth | Market Structure | A measure of how much can be traded before the price moves by a set amount, usually read from resting orders near the quote. |
| Market Maker | Market Structure | A firm or program that continuously offers to both purchase and sell an asset, earning the spread for providing that service. |
| Off-Ramp | Market Structure | A service that converts digital assets back into government-issued money, paid out to a bank account or card. |
| On-Ramp | Market Structure | A service that converts government-issued money into digital assets, usually funded by a bank transfer or a card payment. |
| Open Interest | Market Structure | The total size of derivative contracts currently open, counting positions that have not yet been closed or settled. |
| Order Book | Market Structure | A live list of the prices and quantities people are willing to trade at, sorted from the best bid to the best offer. |
| Over-the-Counter Trading | Market Structure | Large trades arranged directly between two parties or through a desk, instead of being placed on a public exchange. |
| Perpetual Future | Market Structure | A derivative contract that tracks an asset's price with no expiry date, kept in line with spot by regular funding payments between traders. |
| Price Impact | Market Structure | How much a trade moves the market price by itself, simply because of its size relative to the liquidity available. |
| Settlement | Market Structure | The moment a trade becomes final and the asset and the payment have actually changed hands. |
| Short Squeeze | Market Structure | A sharp price rise driven by traders with short positions closing them, which requires purchasing the asset back. |
| Slippage | Market Structure | The difference between the price a trader expected and the price actually received when the trade completes. |
| Spot Market | Market Structure | The market where an asset is traded for immediate delivery and payment, rather than as a contract to be settled later. |
| Spread | Market Structure | The gap between the highest price anyone is currently willing to pay and the lowest price anyone is currently willing to accept. |