The crypto glossary A–Z
The words from the charts, the wallet pop-ups and the group chat. Get the meaning, see an example and follow the source.
Smart contract
A program on a blockchain that executes defined rules when it is invoked.
Smart contract audit
A scoped security review of smart-contract code and the assumptions around it.
Social recovery
A wallet design in which designated guardians help restore or change account access.
Soft fork
A rule change that narrows what is valid while remaining compatible with the older rules.
Solidity
A programming language commonly used to write smart contracts that compile to EVM bytecode.
Spot market
A market for trading the underlying asset with settlement according to the venue's delivery rules.
Stablecoin
A crypto asset designed to track a reference value, commonly a national currency.
Staking
Committing assets to support a proof-of-stake network under its validation and reward rules.
Stale block
A valid block left outside the chain selected by the network's fork-choice rules.
State
The current data a blockchain records as the result of its accepted transaction history.
State channel
A system where participants exchange authorized state updates offchain and use a blockchain to enforce settlement.
State root
A cryptographic commitment to blockchain state using its defined authenticated data structure.
Stop order
An order activated when a specified price or other trigger condition is reached.
Swap
An exchange of one asset for another, often executed through a blockchain trading protocol.
Swap fee
A charge applied by a trading protocol when exchanging assets.
Taproot
A Bitcoin output design supporting key-based spending and optional committed script spending paths.
Testnet
A separate blockchain network intended for testing software and applications.
Tick
A discrete price boundary used to organize ranges in certain concentrated-liquidity AMMs.
Timelock
A spending constraint tied to a specified time or block requirement.
Timelock governance
A governance mechanism that delays execution of approved actions for a specified period.
To the moon
A crypto cheer for a huge price rise, or the hope that one is coming.
Token
An onchain unit recorded by a protocol or application that can represent value, access or a claim.
Token approval
Permission for a specified spender to move tokens under the token contract's rules.
Token burn
A process that removes token units from usable supply under a defined mechanism.
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Concept entries explain ideas. Our separate asset registry identifies coins, tokens and networks by source metadata. Sources & standards