Turning the page.
Bringing the next chapter into view…
From your first block to the finer details. Explore the ideas, people, and systems behind the market—one useful explanation at a time.
Follow a transaction from a key to a shared ledger.
Begin with BlockchainExplore contracts, liquidity, borrowing and the risks between them.
Begin with Smart contractUnderstand what a price, valuation or sentiment indicator can tell you.
Begin with Market capitalizationLearn custody, permissions and how to assess what you sign.
Begin with Hardware walletConnect the original ideas to the incidents that changed the industry.
Begin with A Cypherpunk's ManifestoSeparate technical standards, issuer claims and legal frameworks.
Begin with Howey testA U.S. wealth or income test that gates many private crypto and RWA offerings.
Anti-money-laundering controls: monitoring, reporting, and blocking illicit flows.
An Alternative Trading System, a U.S. SEC-registered venue that can match securities without being a full national exchange.
The U.S. anti-money-laundering statute that requires financial institutions, including many crypto platforms, to know customers and file reports.
New York's state license for virtual-currency businesses, among the earliest U.S. crypto licensing regimes.
A U.S. firm licensed to effect securities transactions for customers or for its own account.
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees commodity derivatives and has treated Bitcoin and ether as commodities.
The Digital Asset Market Clarity Act of 2025, H.R.3633, a U.S. House-origin market-structure bill with subsequent Senate consideration.
A currency transaction report for large cash moves. Crypto analogs appear as threshold transfer reports.
The Financial Action Task Force. The intergovernmental body whose recommendations drive AML and Travel Rule rules worldwide.
The UK Financial Conduct Authority, which registers crypto firms for AML and is expanding a fuller crypto regime.
The U.S. central bank. It supervises large banks, runs wholesale payment rails, and researches a potential digital dollar.
The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the U.S. Treasury bureau that writes AML rules and receives suspicious activity reports.
The U.S. Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, a House-passed bill that would split CFTC and SEC oversight of digital assets.
International policy recommendations for consistent regulation, supervision, and oversight of crypto-asset activities and relevant stablecoin arrangements.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore, a major licensing venue for crypto and digital-asset service providers in Asia.
Markets in Crypto-Assets, the EU regulation that licenses crypto issuers and service providers and sets rules for stablecoins.
A MiCA category for a crypto-asset that seeks to maintain a stable value by referencing one official currency.
A service that pools and shuffles coins to hide the link between sender and receiver. Heavily sanctioned and prosecuted.
A state-licensed business that transmits value for customers. Many U.S. exchanges hold these licenses.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the U.S. national-bank regulator, which has issued guidance on crypto custody and stablecoin reserves.
An international framework for collecting and exchanging information about specified crypto-asset transactions for tax transparency.
The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control. It publishes sanctions lists that exchanges and mixers have been charged with violating.
Legal prohibitions on dealing with listed people, entities, or jurisdictions. On-chain, this often means frozen addresses.
A suspicious activity or suspicious transaction report filed with a financial-intelligence unit.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which polices securities offerings, exchanges, and advisers.
The U.S. law that requires registration or an exemption before securities are offered to the public.
The U.S. law that governs exchanges, brokers, and ongoing disclosure for public securities.
Definitions offer a starting point. Detailed readings include the sources behind the explanation.