The ability of chains and apps to pass assets and messages without a trusted spreadsheet in the middle.

A peer-to-peer protocol for finding and exchanging content-addressed data; a content identifier alone does not promise continued hosting.

A derivative commonly quoted in fiat units whose margin and profit or loss are calculated in the underlying cryptocurrency using inverse-price arithmetic.

A U.S. law regulating investment companies, including many mutual funds and ETFs; U.S. spot Bitcoin and ether commodity-trust ETPs do not register under this Act.

Indication of interest. A non-binding hint of size used to find the other side without showing a firm order.

The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, which writes the legal contracts behind most OTC derivatives.

BlackRock's ETF brand, including IBIT and other crypto-linked funds.

A global standard for richer financial messages used by payments, securities, and FX. Several crypto networks market ISO 20022 compatibility for bank rails.

Messaging richness banks want. Crypto ledgers can carry memos, but legal interoperability is about gateways, not magic compatibility badges.

The international codes for currencies (USD, EUR, XAU). Crypto tickers are informal and are not ISO 4217 assignments.

A liquid-staking protocol whose Ethereum staking tokens, stETH and wstETH, represent claims linked to staked ether; LDO is a separate governance token.

A client that verifies selected authenticated blockchain data with less local computation and storage than a full node; its proofs and trust assumptions depend on the protocol.

Bitcoin's payment-channel network for cheap, fast transfers that settle back to L1 when channels close.

Instant Bitcoin transfers over payment channels with low fees when routes are available.

A Lightning routing technique that conceals information about a recipient's route segment using encrypted forwarding instructions and blinded node identifiers.

An instruction to buy or sell only at a chosen price or better. It may rest unfilled.

A public Ethereum zkEVM rollup powered by the Lineth software stack, with execution on Layer 2 and validity proofs and settlement on Ethereum.

A derivative whose profit or loss changes proportionally with the underlying price change for a fixed position size, before fees and funding.

A Linux Foundation umbrella organization for open-source distributed ledger, identity, and related trust technologies, incorporating the Hyperledger ecosystem.

Additional collateral a liquidator may receive when repaying an unhealthy loan, intended to make liquidation economically worthwhile.

How easily size can be traded without moving the price much. Deep books and pools mean better liquidity.

Thick books and pools absorb size. Thin liquidity turns small sells into crashes.

A smart-contract reserve of two or more tokens that enables automated trading and earns fees for depositors.

An early Bitcoin fork that uses Scrypt proof of work and is often treated as a payments side-bet to Bitcoin.

A protocol for requesting a Lightning payment invoice from a service through an encoded URL-based interaction.

A position that profits if price rises.

Loan to value. Debt divided by collateral. DeFi liquidations fire when LTV exceeds a threshold.

The May 2022 death spiral of TerraUSD and LUNA that erased tens of billions and seeded the CeFi credit crunch.