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.
Exit liquidity
The buying demand that lets someone else sell; in crypto slang, often the late buyers left after the hype fades.
Extended public key
A public key plus derivation information that can generate eligible non-hardened descendant public keys.
Externally owned account
An Ethereum account whose transactions are authorized by a private key, often abbreviated EOA.
Faucet
A service that distributes small amounts of test-network assets for development.
Fee rate
A transaction fee stated per unit of transaction size or weight-derived size.
Fee tier
A configured trading-fee level used by a pool or exchange mechanism.
Fiat-backed stablecoin
A stablecoin that uses fiat-denominated reserves to support its target value.
Finality
The degree of assurance that an accepted transaction or block will not be replaced.
Flash loan
A loan that must be repaid under the protocol’s rules within the same atomic transaction.
FOMO
Fear of missing out: that itch to jump in because everyone else seems to be making money without you.
Fork choice
The rule a node uses to select its preferred chain when multiple valid branches exist.
Formal verification
Using mathematical methods to check whether software satisfies explicitly stated properties.
Fraud proof
Evidence used to demonstrate that a claimed computation or state transition is incorrect.
Freeze authority
The authority allowed to freeze or thaw token accounts for a Solana mint.
Fren
Friend, written in crypto-chat style: a friendly way to address someone in an online community.
FUD
Fear, uncertainty and doubt: crypto shorthand for scary news, rumors or negative talk about a project or market.
Full node
Software that independently checks blockchain transactions and blocks against the network’s rules.
Fully diluted valuation
A hypothetical valuation multiplying a reference price by a broader total or maximum supply figure.
Function selector
The first four bytes identifying a function in a standard Ethereum ABI-encoded call.
Fungible token
A token whose units are interchangeable with other units of the same token class.
Gas
The unit Ethereum uses to measure the computation and other resources a transaction consumes.
Gas limit
The maximum amount of gas allowed for a transaction or block, depending on the context.
Gas price
The amount of ether paid per unit of gas consumed by an Ethereum transaction.
Genesis block
The first block from which a blockchain’s history begins.
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