Crypto has a jargon problem. Here is every term you will actually run into, in alphabetical order, explained the way a mate would over a coffee. Link straight to any term with its anchor.
A long string of characters that works like a bank account number for crypto. Anyone can send to it, only the key holder can spend from it. Always copy-paste and check the first and last characters.
Free tokens distributed to wallets, usually as marketing or a reward for early users. Real ones exist, but "claim your airdrop" links are one of the most common phishing traps.
Any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin. Ranges from serious projects like Ethereum to ten thousand tokens with no reason to exist.
The highest price an asset has ever reached. "Buying the ATH" is buying at the most expensive moment in history, which sometimes works and often hurts.
An extended period of falling prices and misery. Historically crypto bears have cut 70% to 90% off altcoin prices. They end, but later than anyone hopes.
The shared public ledger that records every transaction. Thousands of computers hold identical copies, which is why nobody can quietly edit history.
An extended period of rising prices and euphoria, when everyone is a genius. Usually ends around the time your barber gives you coin tips.
A wallet whose keys live on a device that never touches the internet, usually a hardware wallet. The standard for storing meaningful amounts. See wallets explained.
An arrangement where a company (like an exchange) holds your keys for you. Convenient for trading, but you are trusting them with the coins. The opposite is self-custody.
Financial services (lending, trading, earning yield) built as code on blockchains rather than run by companies. Powerful, experimental, and a place where bugs and scams cost users billions.
An exchange that runs as blockchain code with no company holding your funds, e.g. Uniswap. You trade from your own wallet. More control, more ways to hurt yourself.
Buying a fixed dollar amount on a schedule (say $50 weekly) regardless of price, instead of trying to time the market. Boring, and boring is underrated.
The urge to buy because the price is flying and everyone is celebrating. FOMO buys the top with remarkable reliability.
Negative news or rumours, real or manufactured. Used both as a genuine warning and as a dismissal of genuine warnings, which is the fun of it.
Periodic payments between long and short futures traders that keep the contract price near the spot price. Holding leveraged positions costs money over time. See spot vs futures.
The fee paid to a blockchain network (especially Ethereum) to process your transaction. Rises when the network is busy.
The scheduled event, roughly every four years, where new Bitcoin issuance is cut in half. Historically associated with market cycles, though past patterns guarantee nothing.
Holding long term instead of trading, born from a drunk forum typo of "hold" in 2013. Now a whole investment philosophy.
Identity verification (passport or licence) required by regulated platforms under anti-money-laundering law. Normal, expected, and its complete absence is a warning sign.
Trading with borrowed size: 10x leverage turns $100 into $1,000 of exposure, and a 10% adverse move into a total loss. The main export of leverage is liquidation. See spot vs futures.
An order that only executes at your chosen price or better. You might wait, but you control the price and usually pay lower (maker) fees.
The forced closure of a leveraged position when losses eat your margin. Your stake is gone even if the price recovers a minute later.
How easily an asset trades without moving the price. Deep liquidity means tight spreads and clean fills; thin liquidity means slippage and traps.
Makers add orders to the book (limit orders that wait), takers remove them (market orders that fill now). Exchanges charge takers more; MEXC currently charges spot makers nothing.
Price times circulating supply: the headline size of a coin. A $0.0001 coin is not "cheap" if there are 100 trillion of them.
An order that executes immediately at the best available price. Fast and certain to fill, but you accept the market's price plus any slippage.
A token whose value proposition is the joke itself (Doge and ten thousand imitators). Occasionally spectacular, usually a fast trip to zero. Entertainment budget only.
What it costs to move crypto between wallets or platforms. Varies wildly by coin and network, always check before transferring. See how to buy crypto in NZ.
Buying crypto directly from another person, usually through an exchange's escrow marketplace. A workaround where direct NZD rails do not exist, best left until you know what you are doing.
An exchange publishing cryptographic evidence that it actually holds customer assets. Post-FTX table stakes. Not a full audit, but far better than silence.
Project insiders draining the funds and vanishing, leaving a worthless token. Endemic among new small tokens, which is why "listed" never means "endorsed".
The 12 or 24 words that ARE your self-custody wallet. Anyone with them owns your coins; without them nobody can recover your funds. Paper or steel, never digital. See wallets explained.
The gap between the price you expected and the price you got, caused by thin liquidity or fast markets. Big orders in small coins get eaten alive by it.
Buying and selling the actual asset with money you have. No leverage, no liquidation, no funding fees. Where every beginner belongs. See spot vs futures.
A token pegged to a currency, usually the US dollar (USDT, USDC). The "cash" of crypto markets and the standard quote currency on global exchanges. Carries issuer risk, not risk free.
A holder big enough to move the market with one order. When whales reposition, small-coin charts do strange things that no indicator predicted.
Read our honest MEXC review, then make your first tiny spot trade with the vocabulary to understand what you are doing.
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