Crypto glossary
189 plain definitions across coins, DeFi, trading, and Breakflare research terms. Each entry has short context and FAQ; coin pages include a chart.
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Breakflare metrics
- Breakflare trading agent Breakflare trading agent is the non-custodial autopilot layer on Breakflare's daily research. Paper mode is free on every plan; live trading unlocks on Plus.
- Breakout candidate A breakout candidate is a mid-cap coin Breakflare ranks as showing accelerating attention and improving rank dynamics.
- Breakout Score™ Breakout Score™ (BS™) is Breakflare's headline daily ranking for mid-cap crypto breakout candidates.
- BYOK BYOK (bring your own key) is Breakflare's plan mode where you supply vendor API keys in Settings.
- Catalyst agent Catalyst agent is Breakflare's dated catalyst intelligence layer for band candidates.
- Climb Climb is Breakflare's band climb composite: hype accelerating while market-cap rank improves toward the top 50.
- CoinGecko rank 51-200 CoinGecko ranks 51-200 are Breakflare's mid-cap universe: liquid enough to matter, still able to climb into the top 50.
- Confidence score Confidence reflects signal coverage, ML depth, conflict penalties, and historical cohort precision when enough labels exist.
- Hype momentum Hype momentum is the change in Breakflare hype over 3-day and 7-day UTC windows.
- Hype score Hype score is Breakflare's daily cross-sectional measure of how loud a coin's attention is versus peers.
- Mid-cap altcoin In Breakflare usage, mid-cap altcoins are coins around CoinGecko market-cap ranks 51-200.
- Tier 1 signals Tier 1 covers all top-200 coins with cheap or keyless attention and market signals.
- Tier 2 signals Tier 2 adds deeper social and catalyst coverage on the full breakout band (ranks 51-200 minus stablecoins).
Market structure
- Airdrop An airdrop distributes free tokens to users, often to reward early activity or bootstrap governance.
- Altcoin An altcoin is any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin (sometimes other than BTC and ETH).
- Bid-ask spread The bid-ask spread is the gap between the highest buy price and lowest sell price on a market.
- Bitcoin ETF A Bitcoin ETF is a regulated fund that tracks BTC price so traditional brokerage accounts can gain exposure.
- Catalyst A catalyst is a scheduled or sudden event that can change attention and positioning, such as a listing or unlock.
- Centralized exchange A CEX is a custodial trading platform that matches orders in an off-chain order book.
- Circulating supply Circulating supply is the amount of tokens currently publicly available in the market.
- Cliff A cliff is a vesting milestone when a large batch of locked tokens becomes transferable at once.
- Decentralized exchange A DEX lets users swap tokens from their wallet via smart contracts, without depositing to a custodian.
- Delisting A delisting removes a trading pair from an exchange, often for liquidity, compliance, or project failure reasons.
- Depeg A depeg is when a stablecoin or pegged asset trades meaningfully away from its target price.
- Exchange listing A listing is when a CEX or DEX begins markets for a token, improving access and liquidity.
- Fully diluted valuation FDV estimates value if max or total supply were circulating at today's price (price times total or max supply).
- Governance token A governance token grants voting rights over protocol parameters, treasuries, or upgrades.
- ICO An ICO (initial coin offering) raises funds by selling tokens directly to the public, popular in 2017.
- IDO An IDO (initial DEX offering) launches a token via a decentralized exchange or launchpad.
- IEO An IEO (initial exchange offering) sells tokens through a centralized exchange launchpad.
- Institutional crypto Institutional crypto refers to funds, corporates, and advisors allocating through regulated products and custody.
- Liquidity Liquidity is how easily you can buy or sell size without moving the price too much.
- Market capitalization Market cap equals price times circulating supply and is the common size ranking for crypto assets.
- Max supply Max supply is the hard cap on tokens that can ever exist, if the protocol defines one.
- Memecoin A memecoin is a cryptocurrency driven mainly by culture, jokes, and social virality rather than cash flows.
- Order book An order book lists resting limit bids and asks on a centralized or on-chain order-book exchange.
- Peg A peg is a target price relationship, such as a stablecoin aiming at 1.00 USD.
- Protocol treasury A protocol treasury is a pool of assets controlled by a DAO or foundation for growth, grants, and operations.
- Stablecoin A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to track a reference value, usually 1 USD.
- Token generation event (TGE) A TGE is when a project's token first becomes transferable or claimable according to its launch plan.
- Token unlock A token unlock is when previously locked supply becomes liquid and transferable.
- Tokenomics Tokenomics describes supply, emissions, utility, and incentive design for a crypto asset.
- Total supply Total supply is tokens created minus burned, including locked and unvested balances.
- Trading volume Trading volume is the amount of an asset traded over a period, usually quoted in USD.
- Vesting Vesting releases investor or team tokens gradually over time instead of all at once.
- Wrapped token A wrapped token is a claim on an asset locked elsewhere, enabling that exposure on another chain or token standard.
Trading & technicals
- All-time high ATH is the highest price an asset has ever traded.
- All-time low ATL is the lowest price an asset has ever traded.
- Arbitrage Arbitrage profits from price differences for the same asset across markets or forms.
- ATR ATR (Average True Range) measures typical price range and helps size stops.
- Bear market A bear market is a prolonged downtrend with lower highs and lower lows.
- Bull market A bull market is a sustained period of rising prices and improving risk appetite.
- Drawdown Drawdown is the peak-to-trough decline of price or a portfolio over a period.
- Fakeout A fakeout briefly pierces a level then reverses, trapping momentum traders.
- Funding rate Funding is a periodic payment between longs and shorts on perpetual futures to anchor the contract to spot.
- Leverage Leverage magnifies exposure so a small price move creates larger P&L and liquidation risk.
- Limit order A limit order buys or sells only at your specified price or better.
- Liquidation Liquidation forcibly closes a leveraged position when collateral can no longer cover losses.
- Long position A long position profits if the asset price rises.
- MACD MACD is a trend-following indicator from the difference between two exponential moving averages.
- Margin Margin is collateral posted to open and maintain a leveraged position.
- Market order A market order fills immediately against available liquidity at the current market price.
- Moving average A moving average smooths price over a window to highlight trend direction.
- Open interest Open interest is the total outstanding derivatives contracts not yet settled.
- Perpetual futures Perpetual futures are derivative contracts without expiry that use funding to track spot prices.
- Price breakout A price breakout is when an asset moves beyond a defined range or level with conviction.
- Resistance Resistance is a price zone where selling interest historically caps advances.
- Risk management How traders limit damage from being wrong through position size, stops, and diversification.
- RSI RSI (Relative Strength Index) is a momentum oscillator measuring recent gains versus losses on a 0-100 scale.
- Sandwich attack A sandwich attack places trades before and after a victim swap to profit from the price impact.
- Short position A short position profits if the asset price falls.
- Sideways market A sideways market trades in a range without a clear trend.
- Slippage Slippage is the difference between expected trade price and the price you actually get.
- Spot market Spot trading buys or sells the actual asset for immediate settlement subject to venue rules.
- Stop-loss A stop-loss exits a position when price reaches a predefined adverse level.
- Support Support is a price zone where buying interest historically absorbs selling.
- Take-profit A take-profit order exits when price reaches a predefined favorable target.
- Trend A trend is the persistent direction of price, often described as higher highs or lower lows.
- Volatility Volatility measures how much price fluctuates over time.
DeFi
- APR APR (annual percentage rate) expresses yearly return without intra-year compounding assumptions.
- APY APY (annual percentage yield) compounds returns over a year; APR usually does not assume compounding.
- Automated market maker An AMM prices swaps with a formula and liquidity pools instead of a traditional order book.
- DAI DAI is a decentralized stablecoin originally soft-pegged to USD via Maker collateral vaults.
- DeFi DeFi (decentralized finance) is on-chain lending, trading, and yield built from smart contracts.
- Flash loan A flash loan is an uncollateralized loan borrowed and repaid within the same transaction.
- Impermanent loss Impermanent loss is the opportunity cost LPs face when pool prices diverge versus simply holding tokens.
- Liquid staking Liquid staking lets you stake assets and receive a tradable token representing the staked position.
- Liquidity mining Liquidity mining pays protocol tokens to users who provide liquidity or other productive deposits.
- Restaking Restaking reuses staked assets to secure additional services or networks for extra yield.
- Staking Staking locks tokens to help secure a proof-of-stake network or protocol in exchange for rewards.
- Total value locked TVL measures crypto assets deposited in a DeFi protocol's contracts.
- USDC USDC is a major USD stablecoin issued by Circle, popular in DeFi and fintech rails.
- USDT USDT (Tether) is the largest USD stablecoin by market cap, widely used for crypto trading pairs.
- Yield farming Yield farming is moving capital across DeFi protocols to earn fees, emissions, or rewards.
On-chain & wallets
- Cold wallet A cold wallet keeps private keys offline, usually on a hardware device or air-gapped setup.
- Crypto address A crypto address is the destination string used to receive assets on a given network.
- Crypto wallet A crypto wallet stores keys that control on-chain assets; it does not hold coins like a physical purse.
- Custody Custody means who holds the keys: you (self-custody) or a third party (exchange or custodian).
- Exchange flow Exchange flows measure tokens moving into or out of exchange wallets.
- Hardware wallet A hardware wallet signs transactions on a dedicated device so private keys never leave secure hardware.
- Hot wallet A hot wallet keeps keys on an internet-connected device for fast spending and DeFi use.
- Multisig Multisig requires multiple signatures before funds can move, such as 2-of-3 keys.
- On-chain analysis On-chain analysis studies blockchain data such as transfers, holder behavior, and exchange flows.
- Private key A private key is the secret credential that can sign transactions and spend crypto from an address.
- Public key A public key and its address are the shareable identifiers others use to send you crypto.
- Seed phrase A seed phrase is a human-readable backup, usually 12 or 24 words, that can restore a wallet's keys.
- Whale A whale is a holder or trader large enough to move markets or dominate liquidity.
Social & attention
- AI crypto AI crypto refers to tokens tied to AI agents, compute, data, or model-market narratives.
- Altcoin season Altcoin season is a period when altcoins outperform Bitcoin as risk appetite expands down the market-cap curve.
- Attention acceleration Attention acceleration is the rate of change in attention, emphasized by Breakflare over static hype level.
- Crypto influencer Influencers are accounts with large followings that can move attention and sometimes price with posts.
- Crypto narrative A narrative is a shared story such as AI, L2s, memes, or DePIN that concentrates capital and attention.
- Dollar-cost averaging DCA invests fixed amounts on a schedule to reduce timing risk.
- Fear and Greed Index The Crypto Fear and Greed Index summarizes market emotion from price, volume, social, and surveys.
- FOMO FOMO (fear of missing out) is the urge to buy because others appear to be profiting.
- FUD FUD means fear, uncertainty, and doubt: negative narrative pressure that can be true or manipulative.
- Google Trends Google Trends measures relative search interest for keywords over time.
- HODL HODL is crypto slang for holding through volatility instead of short-term trading.
- Market sentiment Sentiment describes whether discussion skews bullish, bearish, or mixed.
- Mention velocity Mention velocity measures how fast social mentions are accelerating, not just how high they are.
- Retail trader Retail traders are non-institutional individuals, often more narrative and social-driven.
- Sector rotation Sector rotation is capital and attention moving from one crypto theme cluster to another.
- Social volume Social volume counts how often an asset is mentioned across social platforms over a period.
- Virality Virality is rapid, compounding spread of content about a coin or narrative across networks.
Infrastructure & tech
- Block explorer A block explorer is a website that indexes blockchain data so you can look up transactions, addresses, and contracts.
- Block reward A block reward is newly issued crypto paid to the miner or validator that produces a block.
- Blockchain A blockchain is a shared, append-only ledger secured by consensus across a network of computers.
- Bridge A bridge moves assets or messages between blockchains, often by locking on one chain and minting on another.
- Chain reorganization A reorg replaces a recently accepted chain tip with a competing fork, potentially dropping transactions.
- Consensus mechanism Consensus is how a blockchain network agrees on the next valid block and shared history.
- DAO A DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) uses tokens and on-chain voting to govern a protocol or treasury.
- dApp A dApp is a decentralized application that uses smart contracts and wallet signatures instead of a central account database.
- Data availability Data availability means rollup transaction data is published somewhere verifiers can retrieve to check state.
- DePIN DePIN tokenizes real-world hardware networks like storage, wireless, or compute.
- EVM The Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) is the runtime that executes smart contracts on Ethereum and many compatible chains.
- Faucet A faucet distributes small amounts of testnet tokens for free so developers can experiment.
- Finality Finality is the point after which a transaction is considered irreversible under the protocol's security assumptions.
- Fork A fork is a divergence in blockchain rules or history, from software upgrades to chain splits.
- Fraud proof A fraud proof shows that an optimistic rollup state transition was invalid so the chain can reject it.
- Gas Gas is the unit of computational work required to execute transactions and smart contracts on networks like Ethereum.
- Gas fee A gas fee is the transaction cost paid to validators or miners for including your transaction in a block.
- Halving A halving is a programmed cut in Bitcoin's block subsidy, roughly every 210,000 blocks (about 4 years).
- Hard fork A hard fork is a non-backward-compatible protocol change that nodes must upgrade to follow.
- Hash rate Hash rate measures how much computational work a proof-of-work network or miner performs per second.
- Interoperability Interoperability is the ability for blockchains to exchange assets and messages safely.
- Layer 1 A layer 1 is a base blockchain that provides its own security and settlement, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana.
- Layer 2 A layer 2 scales a base chain by executing transactions off the L1 while inheriting security via proofs or fraud challenges.
- Mainnet Mainnet is the live production blockchain where real assets and economic value settle.
- Mempool The mempool is the waiting room of unconfirmed transactions seen by a node before block inclusion.
- MEV MEV (maximal extractable value) is value validators or searchers can extract by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions.
- Mining Mining is competing to produce proof-of-work blocks and earn block rewards plus fees.
- Modular blockchain A modular stack splits execution, settlement, consensus, and data availability across specialized layers.
- NFT An NFT (non-fungible token) is a unique on-chain token used for art, collectibles, tickets, identity, and game items.
- NFT marketplace An NFT marketplace is a venue to buy, sell, and mint non-fungible tokens.
- Node A node is software that participates in a blockchain network by storing data and validating rules.
- Optimistic rollup An optimistic rollup assumes transactions are valid unless challenged during a fraud-proof window.
- Oracle An oracle brings off-chain data such as prices onto blockchains for smart contracts to use.
- Priority fee A priority fee (tip) incentivizes validators to include your Ethereum-style transaction sooner.
- Proof of stake Proof of stake selects validators to propose and attest blocks based on staked collateral.
- Proof of work Proof of work secures a blockchain by requiring miners to expend computational energy to propose blocks.
- Roadmap A roadmap lists planned product and protocol milestones a crypto team says it will ship.
- Rollup A rollup executes transactions off L1 execution and posts data or proofs back to a parent chain.
- RPC endpoint An RPC endpoint is an API URL wallets and apps use to read chain state and broadcast transactions.
- Sharding Sharding splits blockchain state or workload across parallel shards to raise throughput.
- Slashing Slashing destroys or locks part of a validator's stake as a penalty for severe misbehavior or downtime rules.
- Smart contract A smart contract is on-chain code that automatically executes rules when transactions call it.
- Soft fork A soft fork is a backward-compatible rule tightening that older nodes still see as valid.
- Solidity Solidity is the primary programming language for Ethereum Virtual Machine smart contracts.
- Testnet A testnet is a parallel blockchain used for experiments with worthless test tokens.
- TPS TPS estimates how many transactions a blockchain can process per second under given assumptions.
- Transaction A blockchain transaction is a signed instruction to transfer value or call a contract.
- Validator A validator is a network participant that proposes or attests to blocks in proof-of-stake systems.
- Validity proof A validity proof cryptographically shows that a batch of transactions was executed correctly.
- Whitepaper A whitepaper explains a crypto project's problem, design, and token economics for investors and builders.
- ZK rollup A ZK rollup posts validity proofs so the L1 can verify correctness without re-executing every transaction.
Regulation & security
- AML AML (anti-money laundering) rules require platforms to monitor and report suspicious activity.
- Crypto regulation Crypto regulation covers how securities, commodities, payments, and AML laws apply to digital assets.
- Due diligence (DYOR) Due diligence means researching a token's contracts, team, tokenomics, and liquidity before risking capital.
- Exploit An exploit abuses a smart contract, bridge, or key-management flaw to steal funds.
- Honeypot A honeypot token can be bought but cannot be freely sold due to malicious contract logic.
- KYC KYC (know your customer) is identity verification required by many centralized exchanges.
- MiCA MiCA is the European Union markets in crypto-assets framework for issuers and service providers.
- Phishing Phishing tricks you into revealing seeds, signing malicious approvals, or visiting fake sites.
- Pump and dump A pump and dump coordinates hype to inflate price, then sells into buyers.
- Rug pull A rug pull is when insiders drain liquidity or abandon a project after raising funds or hype.
- SEC (crypto context) The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is a key regulator in crypto enforcement and registration debates.
- Sybil farming A Sybil strategy creates many fake identities to capture airdrops or governance power.
- Token approval A token approval lets a smart contract spend your ERC-20 (or similar) tokens up to an allowance.
- Two-factor authentication 2FA adds a second login factor beyond a password, such as an authenticator app.