Glossary
75 terms, defined plainly
Each entry explains what the term means, and where useful, why it matters when you are reading a chart or a contract.
A
- Aggregator
- An interface that searches several venues or pools and assembles a route, without necessarily holding your assets.
- Airdrop
- Tokens distributed to addresses, sometimes unsolicited.
- Allowancealso: approval limit
- On EVM networks, a standing permission for a contract to move a specific token on your behalf.
- AMMalso: automated market maker
- An automated market maker prices trades against pooled reserves and a formula rather than an order book of resting bids and offers.
- Approval
- The transaction that grants an allowance.
B
- Block exploreralso: explorer
- A site that displays on-chain records such as transactions, balances and contract details.
- Bonding curvealso: curve
- A pricing formula where the token price is a function of the amount already issued, commonly used during a launch phase before a pool migration.
- Breakout
- A move beyond a prior range boundary.
- Bridge
- A service moving value between networks, with its own trust and failure model.
- Bundle
- Multiple transactions submitted together so they execute in a chosen order.
- Burnalso: burned
- Sending tokens to an address nobody controls, or using a contract function, so they cannot be moved again.
C
- Catalyst
- A specific event expected to change attention or flows.
- Circulating supply
- The provider's estimate of tokens considered available, which may exclude locked, burned or treasury-held amounts.
- Content coin
- A token tied to a specific post or piece of media.
- Cost basisalso: basis
- The acquisition cost attributed to the units you hold.
- Creator coin
- A token associated with a creator's identity. Association is not ownership of their work or revenue.
- CTalso: crypto twitter
- Crypto Twitter: the informal social layer where much narrative formation happens.
- CTOalso: community takeover
- Community takeover: contributors claiming stewardship of a token after the original team leaves.
- Custody
- Who can actually move the assets.
D
- Dev walletalso: deployer
- An address attributed to a token's deployer or team, usually by inference rather than proof.
- Drawdown
- A decline from a peak in account value.
E
- Exit liquidity
- The buyers whose purchases allow an earlier holder to sell.
- Expectancy
- Average expected result per trade from historical win rate and average win and loss sizes.
F
- FDValso: fully diluted valuation
- Fully diluted valuation, using a broader supply figure defined by the data provider.
- Freeze authorityalso: freeze
- On Solana, the permission to freeze token accounts so holders cannot transfer.
- Funding rate
- A periodic payment between long and short holders in a perpetual futures market.
G
- Gasless
- Interface language indicating a user does not directly pay a visible network fee for an action.
- Graduationalso: migration event
- The point at which a launch meets a platform threshold and its liquidity moves to a standard pool venue.
H
- Holder concentration
- How much supply sits in the largest addresses, after excluding pools, burns and known custody.
- Honeypot
- A token designed or configured so buyers cannot sell under some or all conditions.
K
- KOLalso: influencer
- A key opinion leader: an account with influence over attention and flows.
L
- Liquidation
- Forced closure of a leveraged position when margin requirements fail.
- Liquidityalso: depth
- The depth available to execute a trade at a given route and size, not the headline value of a pool.
M
- Market capalso: mc, marketcap
- A quoted price multiplied by an estimate of circulating supply. It is a valuation estimate, not money available to pay sellers.
- MEValso: maximal extractable value
- Value extracted by reordering, inserting or censoring transactions.
- Migration
- Movement of a token's primary liquidity from one venue or pool to another.
- Mini Appalso: miniapp
- An application embedded in a social client, often able to request wallet actions.
- Minimum receivedalso: min received
- The output threshold below which a transaction should fail rather than execute.
- Mint authorityalso: mint
- On Solana, the permission to create additional units of a token.
- Momentum
- Continuation of a directional move, used as context rather than proof.
N
P
- Points
- A platform scoring system, often implying future rewards.
- Position sizingalso: sizing
- Choosing exposure from a loss budget and an assumed exit.
- Price impactalso: impact
- The change in execution economics caused by your own order consuming available liquidity.
- Priority fee
- An additional network-level payment that can improve the chance of timely inclusion during congestion.
- Pullback
- A counter-move within a prevailing trend.
Q
- Quote
- A platform's estimate of the output you would receive for a given input at a moment in time.
R
- R multiplealso: r
- A result expressed as a multiple of the planned initial risk.
- Realized PnLalso: realised pnl
- Profit or loss from positions actually closed, ideally after costs.
- Rebate
- A partial refund of trading fees used to encourage activity.
- Referral
- A link or code that compensates the referrer for your activity.
- Resistance
- A price area where selling previously appeared.
- Rug pullalso: rug
- Removal of liquidity or supply control used to leave buyers unable to exit at meaningful value.
S
- Sandwich
- An attack placing orders immediately before and after yours to profit from the price you move.
- Shill
- Promotion of an asset, often without disclosing a position or payment.
- Signature
- Authorisation produced by your private key for a message or transaction.
- Slippagealso: slippage tolerance
- The difference between an expected quote and the eventual execution, usually because conditions changed or the quote became stale.
- Slow rug
- A gradual version of the same outcome: steady insider selling or quiet abandonment rather than a single event.
- Smart money
- A label applied to addresses with apparently good records. It is a label, not a verified identity or forecast.
- Sniper
- A participant buying within the first moments of a launch, often automated.
- SocialFialso: social finance
- Products combining social activity with financial interactions and tokenised claims.
- Stop lossalso: sl
- An intended exit at an adverse level, which depends on a route being available.
- Support
- A price area where buying previously appeared.
- Sybil activity
- Many addresses controlled by one party to appear as many participants.
T
- Take profitalso: tp
- A planned exit at a favourable level.
- Tip
- A payment to a block builder or relay service, distinct from the base network fee.
- Token extensionalso: token-2022
- Optional Solana token-program features that add behaviour such as transfer fees or transfer hooks.
- Total supply
- All tokens issued by the contract, including amounts excluded from circulating estimates.
- Trailing stop
- An exit level that follows price in the favourable direction.
- Transfer feealso: token tax, tax
- A fee charged by the token itself on transfers, separate from venue or network costs.
U
- Unrealized PnLalso: unrealised pnl
- Estimated profit or loss on open positions, marked at a quoted price that may not be executable.
V
- Vesting
- A schedule releasing tokens over time.
W
- Wallet cluster
- A group of addresses believed related through funding, timing or behaviour.
- Wash trading
- Trading with yourself or coordinated parties to manufacture apparent volume.