A consistency guarantee under which replicas converge once updates stop and propagate, while intermediate reads may disagree.

A decentralized storage market where miners earn FIL for providing space and retrieval.

The G20-linked body that coordinates financial-regulation standards, including crypto-asset and stablecoin recommendations.

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.

The Financial Information eXchange protocol used by traditional venues for orders and market data.

An uncollateralized loan that must be borrowed and repaid inside the same transaction, used for arb and liquidations.

The freely trading supply. Low float plus hype can produce violent squeezes both ways.

Fear of missing out. Buying because price already ran, often near local tops.

A protocol path for submitting a transaction through a settlement layer or alternative queue when a rollup sequencer does not include it normally.

A split in chain history or protocol rules. Can be accidental (two tips) or intentional (an upgrade).

The rule a node applies to select its preferred chain head when more than one valid branch is available.

Mathematical proofs about contract behavior, complementary to audits and tests.

Mathematically proving that code matches a spec, used on high-value vaults and zk circuits.

A common structure: nonprofit foundation holds IP or treasury, for-profit lab builds the product.

Splitting a high-value asset into many tokens so smaller buyers can hold a slice. Legal title design matters more than the token UI.

Seeing a pending transaction and inserting your own ahead of it for profit.

International policy recommendations for consistent regulation, supervision, and oversight of crypto-asset activities and relevant stablecoin arrangements.

A collapsed centralized exchange whose 2022 failure froze customer funds and reshaped U.S. enforcement.

The November 2022 failure of FTX and Alameda, a defining custody and fraud event for the industry.

Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Negative narrative used to scare holders into selling.

A node that verifies every block and transaction against consensus rules instead of trusting a third party.

Encryption that permits supported computations on ciphertexts, so an authorized party can decrypt the resulting answer without revealing the original inputs to the evaluator.

A contract to buy or sell an asset at a set date and price. Crypto futures are often cash-settled.

An exchange and custodian founded by the Winklevoss twins, with a New York trust charter.

The first block or agreed starting record of a blockchain, anchoring its initial history and state under that network's rules.

The U.S. payment-stablecoin law enacted as Public Law 119-27 on July 18, 2025, establishing an issuer and supervisory framework with implementation provisions.

An attempt to misuse a protocol's proposal, voting or execution machinery to obtain unauthorized control, transfer assets or change rules against the system's intended protections.

A token associated with a protocol's decision process, often assigning voting or delegation power under specific proposal and execution rules.

Operators who exploit then negotiate returns. Legal and ethical status is messy.

The issuer of GBTC and other crypto trusts, later converted in part to spot ETFs.