Crypto glossary

The number of distinct addresses that sent or received a coin in a period, usually a UTC day. A rough gauge of how much a network is used, counted straight from the chain.

See it: Bitcoin active addresses, Ethereum active addresses

A string that identifies where coins can be sent on a blockchain. One person or company can control many addresses, and one address can be shared by many people, as on an exchange, so addresses are not people.

See it: Active addresses

The highest price a coin has ever reached. On our pages it is the highest daily close (UTC), not the highest trade within a day, so it can sit a little below intraday peaks quoted elsewhere.

See it: Bitcoin all-time high

Any coin other than bitcoin. Altcoins often move with bitcoin but with larger swings in both directions.

See it: Altcoin season index

A stretch when most large altcoins outperform bitcoin. Our index counts how many of the largest coins beat bitcoin over the last 90 days.

See it: Altcoin season index

The gap between a futures price and the spot price, usually shown as an annualised percentage. A high positive basis means traders pay up to hold leveraged long exposure.

See it: Markets table

A long period of falling prices, often taken as a fall of 20% or more from a high. In crypto, bear markets have seen falls of 70% to 85% from the top.

See it: Bitcoin drawdown

How much a coin has tended to move for each 1% move in a benchmark, usually bitcoin. A beta of 1.5 means the coin has typically moved one and a half times as much.

See it: Compare crypto

Bitcoin's share of a total crypto market cap. Ours is bitcoin's share of the coins we track, so it reads higher than figures that count thousands of small coins.

See it: Market cap and dominance

A batch of transactions added to a blockchain at once. Bitcoin aims for one block every ten minutes; Ethereum produces one every twelve seconds.

See it: Bitcoin block time

The new coins and fees paid to whoever adds a block. On Bitcoin the new-coin part, the subsidy, halves every 210,000 blocks.

See it: Bitcoin halving

A long period of rising prices. Bitcoin's bull markets have tended to follow its halvings, though no cycle has repeated exactly.

See it: Bull market support band

The coins that can trade today: the supply in existence less coins locked, vested or held back by the project. Where we run the chain we count it; for other coins we use the project's own published figure and say so.

See it: Crypto prices

A measure of old coins moving: each coin spent multiplied by the days since it last moved. Spikes mean long-held coins changed hands.

See it: Coin days destroyed

A wallet whose keys are kept offline. Exchanges hold most customer coins in cold wallets and keep a smaller hot wallet for withdrawals.

How closely two prices rise and fall on the same days, from 1 (in lockstep) through 0 (unrelated) to −1 (opposite). Most large coins are strongly correlated with bitcoin.

See it: Compare crypto, Bitcoin correlation

The price at which coins were last moved, taken as what their holders paid. Realized price is the average cost basis of all coins.

See it: Realized price

Market buys minus market sells, added up over time. A rising CVD means buyers have been crossing the spread more than sellers.

How hard it is to find a valid Bitcoin block. It adjusts every 2,016 blocks so blocks keep arriving about every ten minutes whatever the hash rate.

See it: Difficulty adjustment

How long coins had sat unmoved before they were spent, on average. High dormancy means older coins are moving, often long-term holders selling into strength.

See it: Dormant supply

The fall from a peak to a later low, as a percentage. A coin 60% below its high is in a 60% drawdown.

See it: Bitcoin drawdown

The coins held in exchanges' known wallets. Falling balances mean coins are leaving for self-custody; rising balances can come before selling.

See it: Exchange balance

Coins sent to exchanges minus coins withdrawn over a period. Positive means more arrived than left.

See it: Markets table

A 0 to 100 sentiment score. Ours is built from our own market data, such as momentum, volatility and leverage, not from surveys or social posts.

See it: Fear & Greed Index

The part of the supply that can realistically trade: circulating supply less coins in funds, companies, governments and coins unmoved for many years.

See it: Who holds bitcoin

Price times the maximum supply, or the total supply where there is no maximum: what the market cap would be if every coin that can exist were circulating. A large gap to the market cap means many coins are still to be released.

See it: Crypto prices

The periodic payment between long and short holders of a perpetual future that keeps its price near spot. Positive funding means longs pay shorts, a sign that leveraged buyers dominate.

See it: Bitcoin funding rate

The fee unit for computation on Ethereum. A transaction pays its gas used times the gas price, part of which is burned.

See it: Ethereum gas, Gas price explained

The cut in Bitcoin's new-coin reward by half every 210,000 blocks, about every four years. It is why issuance stops just short of 21 million.

See it: Halving countdown

The total computing power securing a proof-of-work chain, in hashes per second. It is estimated from how quickly blocks are found at the current difficulty.

See it: Bitcoin hash rate

Crypto slang for holding through ups and downs rather than trading. Long-term holder metrics measure how much of the supply behaves this way.

See it: Long-term holder supply

The volatility option prices imply for the future, as an annualised percentage. Higher IV means traders pay more for protection or upside.

See it: Markets table

How much more bitcoin costs on South Korean exchanges than elsewhere. A wide premium has marked heated local demand.

See it: Kimchi premium

A network that settles to a main chain such as Ethereum while handling transactions more cheaply off it. Rollups post their data back to the main chain.

Borrowed exposure: trading a position larger than the money put up. Leverage magnifies gains and losses and leads to forced closes when prices move against it.

See it: Leverage gauge

The forced closing of a leveraged position when its losses use up its margin. Waves of liquidations can push prices further in the same direction.

See it: Liquidations today, Liquidation heatmap

How easily a coin can be bought or sold without moving its price. Deep order books and high volume mean good liquidity.

A position that gains when the price rises. Buying a coin is a long position; so is buying a future or a call option.

Coins unmoved for at least 155 days, and by extension their holders. Long-term holders tend to buy weakness and sell into strength.

See it: Long-term holder supply

Accounts net long divided by accounts net short on a venue's futures. Above 1, more accounts lean long; it counts accounts, not money.

See it: Bitcoin long/short ratio

Moving average convergence divergence: the 12-day exponential average of price less the 26-day one, with its own 9-day average as a signal line. Crossings are read as momentum turning.

See it: Crypto RSI heatmap

Price times circulating supply: what all the coins in circulation are worth at today's price.

See it: Crypto prices, Market cap calculator

The expiry price at which the most open options would expire worthless. Some traders watch it as a magnet into large expiries.

See it: Options expiry

The most coins that can ever exist under a coin's rules, such as 21 million bitcoin. Some coins, like ether, have no fixed maximum.

See it: Bitcoin supply

Price divided by its 200-day moving average. High readings have marked overheated markets and low ones cheap ones.

See it: Mayer Multiple

The queue of valid transactions waiting to be included in a block. A crowded mempool means higher fees to get in quickly.

See it: Bitcoin fees

A participant who spends computing power to find proof-of-work blocks and earns the block reward. Miners sell coins to cover costs, so their flows matter to supply.

See it: Mining calculator

Market value to realized value: market cap divided by realized cap. Above 1, the average coin is held at a profit; very high readings have come near cycle tops.

See it: MVRV ratio, MVRV Z-score

Net unrealized profit and loss: the share of the market cap that is unrealized profit. It moves through zones from capitulation to euphoria across a cycle.

See it: NUPL

The value of futures or options positions still open. Rising open interest with rising prices means new leveraged money is coming in.

See it: Bitcoin open interest

The list of buy and sell orders waiting on an exchange at each price. Its depth shows how much can trade before the price moves.

Momentum labels from indicators such as RSI: above 70 overbought, below 30 oversold. They describe how far price has run, not what a coin is worth.

See it: Crypto RSI heatmap

A futures contract with no expiry, kept close to the spot price by the funding rate. Most crypto leverage trades through perpetuals.

See it: Every perpetual, screened

A model that fits bitcoin's long-run price to a straight line on log-log axes against time since its start. It describes the past trend and makes no promise about the future.

See it: Power law chart

A way to agree on new blocks where validators lock up coins as collateral instead of spending computing power. Ethereum moved to it in 2022.

See it: Ethereum staking

A way to agree on new blocks by spending computing power to solve a puzzle. Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash use it.

See it: Bitcoin hash rate

The daily value of newly issued coins divided by its one-year average. Low readings mean miners earn little and have often marked bottoms.

See it: Puell Multiple

Coloured bands around a logarithmic fit of bitcoin's price history. A visual guide to where price sits in its long-run range, not a forecast.

See it: Rainbow chart

Every coin valued at the price it last moved, added up: an estimate of what holders paid in total.

See it: Realized price

Realized cap divided by the supply: the average price at which the coins last moved. Price below it means the average holder is at a loss.

See it: Realized price

A ratio of price to the conviction of long-term holders. Low readings have meant holders were confident while price was low.

See it: Reserve risk

The relative strength index: recent gains against recent losses on a 0 to 100 scale, usually over 14 periods. Above 70 is called overbought, below 30 oversold.

See it: Crypto RSI heatmap

The smallest unit of bitcoin: one hundred-millionth of a bitcoin, 0.00000001 BTC.

See it: Sats to USD

A position that gains when the price falls, usually by selling a future or borrowing coins to sell.

Coins that moved within the last 155 days, and by extension their holders. Their cost basis has acted as support and resistance in trends.

See it: Support levels

Spent output profit ratio: the price coins were sold at divided by the price they were bought at. Above 1, coins moving that day were sold at a profit on average.

See it: SOPR

Buying and selling the coin itself for immediate delivery, as opposed to futures or options.

See it: Token finder

An exchange-traded fund that holds the coin itself, so investors can buy exposure on a stock exchange. Issuers publish their holdings every trading day.

See it: ETF flows

A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar, backed by reserves or collateral. Their supply is a gauge of cash waiting on-chain.

See it: Stablecoin supply

Locking coins to help run a proof-of-stake network in return for rewards. Staked coins are usually slower to sell.

See it: Ethereum staking

The existing supply divided by yearly new issuance: a measure of scarcity. Bitcoin's rises with each halving.

See it: Stock-to-flow

The scheduled release of locked tokens to teams, investors or treasuries. Large unlocks add supply the market has to absorb.

See it: Token unlocks

Every coin in existence, locked or not, less coins provably burned. It sits between circulating supply and maximum supply.

See it: Crypto prices

A listed company that holds a crypto asset on its balance sheet as a main part of its strategy, such as Strategy with bitcoin.

See it: Treasury companies

Unspent transaction output: a chunk of coins waiting to be spent, the way Bitcoin, Litecoin, Dogecoin and Bitcoin Cash track balances. Every UTXO records when and at what price it was created.

See it: UTXO count

How much a price swings, usually the annualised standard deviation of daily returns. Bitcoin's has been between about 30% and 100% a year.

See it: Compare crypto

The value traded in a period. Ours counts spot trading against the US dollar and dollar stablecoins on the venues we collect.

See it: Markets table

A holder with a very large balance. On-chain, large balances are often exchanges, funds or custodians rather than single people.

See it: Who holds bitcoin