An Ethereum Layer 2 network with EVM-compatible execution, ETH-denominated gas, and settlement mechanisms that distinguish rapid local confirmations from Ethereum finality and bridge withdrawals.

A rollup whose transaction sequencing is driven by its base layer's block proposers rather than a separate privileged rollup sequencer.

The 2021 Christie's sale of Beeple's Everydays collage that mainstreamed NFT price headlines.

How tightly an asset moves with a benchmark, often Bitcoin, used as a rough risk factor.

The gap between the highest bid and the lowest ask. A wide spread is a hidden trading cost.

The world's largest centralized crypto exchange by volume, with a spot book, derivatives, and a large listing machine.

Hierarchical deterministic wallets. One seed derives a tree of keys so backups stay simple.

The Bitcoin specification for a particular Schnorr signature scheme over secp256k1, used with Taproot spending.

The word-list standard for mnemonic seeds used by most wallets.

A derivation-path convention so the same seed can produce keys for many coins in a predictable tree.

The first and largest cryptocurrency. A proof-of-work UTXO chain with a 21 million supply cap, used as digital collateral and a settlement asset.

A proof-of-work cryptocurrency and payment network that split from Bitcoin in August 2017, emphasizing greater transaction capacity on the base chain.

A temporary Bitcoin consensus split caused by differing block-handling behavior between software versions, documented in BIP-50.

An August 2010 Bitcoin validation bug that allowed an invalidly large output total, followed by a software fix and a chain reorganization.

A high-profile lending and trading scam that collapsed in 2018 after promising impossible yields.

A crypto exchange historically tied to Tether's early distribution and to large professional spot flow.

Theft of about 120,000 BTC from Bitfinex. Later U.S. seizures of related coins became a landmark recovery story.

A digital asset infrastructure company offering wallet, custody, and related institutional services through different products and legal entities.

New York's state license for virtual-currency businesses, among the earliest U.S. crypto licensing regimes.

One of the oldest surviving euro-friendly centralized exchanges.

An attacker who exploits for profit or disruption without disclosure.

The world's largest asset manager and issuer of IBIT, a leading spot Bitcoin ETF.

A batch of transactions plus a header that links to the previous block by hash.

Jack Dorsey's company behind Cash App, Square, and Bitcoin mining and protocol investments.

The number of blocks from genesis to the current tip. A simple way to talk about chain progress.

The target or observed interval between blocks on a network.

An append-only distributed ledger where blocks of transactions are cryptographically linked and validated by a network of nodes.

Bitcoin infrastructure company known for Liquid, mining, and satellite broadcast experiments.

The Lightning specification for encoding payment requests as signed invoices with fields such as amount, payment hash, description, and expiry.

Yuga Labs' ape PFPs that became the 2021 status NFT, then a symbol of NFT-winter drawdowns.

Taking a loan against locked collateral. Interest accrues until you repay or get liquidated.

A grouping of major emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and newer members) that discusses trade, development banks, and alternatives to dollar rails.

A proposed cross-border payment framework among BRICS members, discussed as a complement to SWIFT rather than a live global rail.

A U.S. firm licensed to effect securities transactions for customers or for its own account.

A public reward for reporting vulnerabilities before they are exploited.

Paid responsible disclosure for vulnerabilities, often via Immunefi in crypto.

Community language encouraging people to build and improve crypto products, tools, and infrastructure; distinct from the BUIDL name used by a tokenized fund.

A derivatives-heavy centralized exchange known for perpetual futures.

The compiled form of a contract that the virtual machine actually runs.

The ability of a network to keep a single honest history even if some nodes lie or go offline.