Crypto glossary: terms & definitions | CryptoPulsar AI

Cryptocurrency glossary: blockchain, DeFi, staking and hundreds of other terms explained in plain language.

Technical Indicators

Daily-return association (r): A number from −1 to +1 describing how closely two coins' daily returns moved together in a given window.
Association persistence (stable / variable): A label saying whether the observed association held across shorter sub-periods or appeared only once.
Number of distinct behaviours in a basket: An approximation of how many separate movement patterns actually repeated in a set of coins.
ATH (All-Time High): Highest historical price of an asset.
Bollinger Bands: Three lines showing volatility: 20-period MA + 2 standard deviations.
Death Cross: Bear signal: 50-day MA crosses below 200-day MA.
Funding Rate: Fee exchanged between longs and shorts on perpetual futures.
Golden Cross: Bull signal: 50-day MA crosses above 200-day MA.
MA Cross (Moving Average Cross): Signal from crossing of two moving averages of different lengths.
MACD: Momentum indicator from difference of two EMAs and its signal line.
Open Interest (OI): Total value of open futures/perpetual positions.
RSI (Relative Strength Index): 0-100 oscillator showing oversold (<30) or overbought (>70).
ATH Distance: Percentage distance of current price from all-time high.
EMA (Exponential Moving Average): Moving average that weights recent prices more - reacts faster than SMA.
SMA (Simple Moving Average): Plain average of closing prices over the last X candles.
VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price): Volume-weighted average price - shows where the real trading happens.
ATR (Average True Range): Measures volatility - average price range over a period.
Stochastic Oscillator: 0-100 indicator showing overbought/oversold like RSI.
Ichimoku Cloud: Comprehensive Japanese system: trend, support/resistance and signals in one chart.
Fibonacci Retracement: Retracement levels 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, 61.8%, 78.6% used as support/resistance.
Support & Resistance: Price levels where buyers (support) or sellers (resistance) historically appeared.
Japanese Candlesticks: Chart format showing open, close, high and low in one symbol.
Doji: Candle where open ~ close - indecision signal.
Hammer / Pin Bar: Candle with long lower wick - shows buyers absorbing the dip.
Engulfing Candle: Candle whose body fully covers the previous candle's body - reversal signal.
Divergence: Price rises but indicator (RSI/MACD) falls (or vice versa) - warning of reversal.
Head & Shoulders: Classic reversal pattern: three peaks (middle is highest).
Double Top / Bottom: Price tests the same level twice and turns - strong reversal signal.
Triangle: Consolidation in a narrowing range - breakout usually continues the prior trend.
Flag / Pennant: Short consolidation after a strong move - usually continues the same direction.
Momentum: The speed and direction of price change over a window (e.g. 7 days), how fast the market is moving.
Volatility: The scale of price swings over time: usually the standard deviation of daily returns (e.g. over 30 days).
Vol/MCap (Volume to Market Cap): The ratio of 24h trading volume to market cap: a measure of liquidity and trading intensity.
Overbought: A state where an asset has risen too fast (e.g. RSI > 70) and may be short-term overheated.
Oversold: A state where an asset has fallen too hard (e.g. RSI < 30) and may be short-term oversold.

On-Chain

Active Addresses: Number of unique addresses that sent or received a transaction in the last 24h.
Bitquery: On-chain data provider indexing all major blockchains via GraphQL.
Coin Days Destroyed (CDD): Sum of 'age' of spent coins: measures long-term holder activity.
Exchange Flow: Net balance of crypto flowing in/out of centralized exchanges.
Exchange Supply %: Percentage of total supply held on centralized exchanges.
Hash Rate: Total computing power of a PoW network (Bitcoin) in hashes per second.
Holders: All addresses holding a given crypto (balance > 0).
Holder Concentration: % of supply held by top addresses (top 10, top 100).
MVRV Ratio: Market value to realized value (avg purchase price of all coins).
NVT Ratio: Network Value to Transactions: 'crypto P/E'.
Smart Money Flow: Activity of large experienced wallets (institutions, known traders).
Whale Activity: Movements of large wallets (>1000 BTC, >10k ETH) are market signals.
Developer Activity: GitHub commits, PRs, releases of project repo, health indicator.
Commits (4w): Number of code changes pushed to the GitHub repo over the last 4 weeks, representing the current pace of work.
GitHub Stars: Total stars on the project's repository, which is a rough gauge of popularity among developers.
SOPR (Spent Output Profit Ratio): Ratio of sale price to buy price for all coins spent today.
Puell Multiple: Ratio of daily miner revenue to its 365-day average - top/bottom indicator.
Realized Cap: Sum of all BTC valued at the price when they last moved.
NUPL (Net Unrealized Profit/Loss): Percentage of unrealized profit/loss across all BTC holders.
Long/Short Term Holders (LTH/STH): BTC holder split: LTH > 155 days held, STH < 155 days.
Miner Revenue: Total daily miner revenue from blocks + fees - key supply variable.
Supply Distribution: % of BTC in wallet sizes - shows concentration.
Coin Age / HODL Waves: How long coins have sat unmoved - shows holder structure.
Spike / Quiet Badges: Automatic flags for days with whale activity far above (spike) or below (quiet) the average.
Exchange Inflow: The amount of coins sent to exchanges plus the number of incoming transfers: the supply side of exchange flows.
Exchange Outflow: The amount of coins withdrawn from exchanges plus the number of outgoing transfers: the accumulation side of exchange flows.
Holder List: A ranking of the largest addresses (or their labels) with their percentage of supply and balance size.

Macroeconomics

Altcoin Season: Period when altcoins outperform Bitcoin. Typically the late stage of a bull run.
BTC Dominance: Bitcoin's share of total crypto market cap.
BTC Dominance Index: Index showing Bitcoin's share of total crypto market.
DXY (US Dollar Index): US dollar strength vs basket of major currencies.
Fed Funds Rate: US base interest rate set by Federal Reserve: world's most important rate.
Macroeconomics: Study of big economic variables: rates, inflation, GDP, dollar, money supply.
M2 Money Supply: Total dollars in circulation (cash, deposits, money market funds).
Yield Curve: Chart of US bond yields by maturity, recession predictor.
ETH Dominance: Ethereum's share of total crypto market.
Spot ETF: Traditional-exchange fund that holds physical BTC/ETH.
Inflation / CPI: Rise in goods prices; CPI is the key inflation gauge in US and euro area.
Recession: Two consecutive quarters of GDP decline - period of weak economy.
S&P 500 / BTC Correlation: How much BTC moves together with the US stock market.
Nasdaq (NDX): The index of the 100 largest US technology companies, historically strongly correlated with BTC and ETH.
Fear Index (VIX): Expected volatility of the US equity market, a thermometer of mood: calm versus panic.

DeFi & Protocols

AMM (Automated Market Maker): Crypto exchange algorithm without an order book. Prices set by a math formula.
DEX Volume: Total swap value on decentralized exchanges in 24h.
Impermanent Loss: AMM liquidity provider loss when pool token prices diverge.
Staking: Locking PoS tokens to support network and earn rewards (~3-10% APR).
TVL (Total Value Locked): Total value of crypto locked in DeFi protocols.
Yield Farming: DeFi yield maximization strategy by moving between protocols.
Liquidity Pool: Reserve of two tokens in smart contract enabling AMM swaps.
Oracle: Bridge between a blockchain and external data (prices, weather, scores).
Bridge: A bridge between two blockchains that moves tokens from A to B.
Wrapped tokens: A token from one chain 'wrapped' for use on another (WBTC, WETH).
Liquid staking: Staking ETH without lockup. You get a token (stETH) you can still use.
Restaking: Re-using staked ETH to secure other protocols.
Flash loan: Uncollateralized loan repaid in the same transaction.
LP Token: Receipt for your share of a liquidity pool - can be staked or farmed.
APR vs APY: APR = yearly rate without compounding, APY = with compounding (higher).
Governance Token: Token granting voting rights over a DeFi protocol's changes.
Perpetual Futures: Futures contracts with no expiry - the most liquid crypto market.
Futures: Agreement to buy/sell an asset at a set price in the future.
Options: Right (not obligation) to buy/sell crypto at a set price.
Basis Trade: Buy spot + sell futures = earn the premium with no directional risk.
DEX Trades Count: The number of individual trades on decentralized exchanges in the analyzed window. A measure of activity breadth.
Breakdown by Protocol: Each DEX protocol percentage share (Uniswap, PancakeSwap, Curve…) of total trading volume.
DEX Trades Total: The total number of DEX trades factored into the score. This is the denominator that bot activity is measured against.

Basics

Blockchain: Distributed ledger storing transactions in a cryptographic chain of blocks.
Block Time: Average time between two consecutive blocks.
Consensus: Mechanism by which nodes agree on the validity of new blocks.
EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine): Virtual machine running smart contracts on Ethereum and compatible chains.
Gas (network fee): Fee paid to validators for executing a transaction on a blockchain.
Proof of Stake (PoS): Consensus where validators stake tokens as honesty guarantee.
Proof of Work (PoW): Consensus where miners solve cryptographic puzzles to add blocks.
Smart Contract: Program running automatically on blockchain by predefined rules.
Crypto Wallet: App or device storing private keys to manage crypto.
Seed Phrase: 12 or 24 words backing up a crypto wallet.
Private Key: 256-bit number giving full control over a crypto address. It is top secret.
Airdrop: Free tokens given to early users of a protocol.
ICO / IDO: First public sale of a project's new tokens.
KYC / AML: Identity verification procedures on centralized exchanges.
Tokenomics: A token's economics: supply, distribution, vesting, inflation.
Token Burn: Permanently destroying tokens, reduces supply.
Multi-sig: A wallet that requires multiple signatures to execute a tx.
Hardware wallet: A physical offline device that stores your private keys.
2FA: Second login security layer: password + code.
Whitepaper: Document describing a crypto project technically and economically.
Vesting: Schedule on which team and investor tokens unlock.
ERC-20: Token standard on Ethereum. All behave the same way.
Market Capitalization: Price x circulating supply. Tells you what the market values the project at.
FDV (Fully Diluted Valuation): Price x MAX supply (as if all of it were already circulating).
Circulating Supply: Number of tokens currently available to trade.
Sample Size (n): The number of observations a result was computed on: the foundation of its reliability.
Blocks Analyzed: How many chain blocks the analysis covered. Sample-size context for the computed metric.

Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin (BTC): First and largest cryptocurrency, digital gold capped at 21M coins.
Ethereum (ETH): Second-largest crypto and first programmable blockchain: DeFi and NFT foundation.
Solana (SOL): Fastest major blockchain: 0.4s blocks, low fees, memecoin home.
Dogecoin (DOGE): First memecoin (2013), Litecoin fork, no supply cap, Elon Musk cult.
XRP (Ripple): Crypto for fast cheap interbank transfers, controversial.
BNB (Binance Coin): Binance exchange token, fee discounts, BSC gas, CZ ecosystem foundation.
Cardano (ADA): Academic PoS blockchain. It is peer-reviewed, has slow rollout and controversial efficacy.

Market Cycle

Bull Cycle: Multi-month period of dominant uptrend.
Bear Cycle: Multi-month downtrend, typically 70-90% drawdown from ATH.
Cycle Score (CryptoPulsar): Algorithmic 0-100 score showing market cycle phase for a project.
Halving (Bitcoin): Event every 4 years halving the Bitcoin block reward.
Pi Cycle Top Indicator: BTC cycle indicator based on MA111 crossing 2×MA350. Historically signals the top within 3 days.
Stock-to-Flow (S2F): Scarcity valuation model: existing stock to annual production ratio.
Capitulation: Mass selling panic at cycle bottom - often a local bottom signal.
Bull Trap: False rally signal in a downtrend - buyers left holding the bag.
Bear Trap: False drop signal in an uptrend - sellers miss the move.
Accumulation / Distribution: Accumulation = big money buying quietly. Distribution = big sellers in bull.

Trading & Investing

DCA (Dollar-Cost Averaging): Strategy of regular fixed-amount buys regardless of price.
HODL (Hold On for Dear Life): Long-term hold strategy, no selling.
Leverage: Borrowing to open a position larger than own funds.
Long / Short: Long = profit on rise. Short = profit on fall.
Position Size: Optimal trade size based on capital, risk, and stop-loss distance.
Stop Loss (SL): Auto-order to close position at predefined loss level.
Take Profit (TP): Auto-order to close position at predefined profit level.
Slippage: The gap between the price you see and the price your trade actually executes at.
Order book: List of all current buy and sell orders on the exchange.
Scalping: Very short-term trading: dozens of trades a day for fractions of a percent.
Swing Trading: Holding from days to weeks - catching mid-size waves.
Day Trading: Opening and closing positions same day - no overnight exposure.
Market vs Limit Order: Market = buy now at any price. Limit = buy only at your price.
Bid/Ask Spread: Difference between the highest buy offer and lowest sell offer.
Sector Driver: The sector's largest, most liquid coin whose moves usually lead the smaller coins (satellites).
Beta (β): How much an asset moves on average per 1% move of a reference (e.g. the driver or BTC).
Signal (Composite): An aggregate read (Bullish / Bearish / Neutral) computed from several indicators at once.
Potential (Score): A project-radar axis (0–10) rating growth prospects over the next 6–12 months.
Sharpe Ratio: A measure of return per unit of risk: average return divided by volatility.
Correlation: A measure (−1…+1) of how much two assets' prices move together.
Monte Carlo Simulation: A method that draws thousands of possible paths to show a RANGE of outcomes, not one outcome.
Long/Short Ratio: The ratio of accounts holding long positions to accounts holding short positions on a futures market. 1.0 = balance.
Liquidation Dominance: Which side (long or short) lost more to liquidations over a period, e.g. 24h.
Short / Long Squeeze: A sharp price move forced by mass closure of opposing positions. A squeeze 'wrings out' one side of the market.
Forced Order (forceOrder): An order placed by the exchange, not the trader. It is the automatic closure of a position that ran out of margin.

Sentiment & Community

Fear & Greed Index: 0-100 indicator synthesizing crypto market sentiment.
FOMO (Fear of Missing Out): Fear of missing out: emotional buying after rapid price rise.
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt): Fear, uncertainty, doubt: negative narratives spread (intentionally or not).
Social Volume: Mentions of crypto on X/Reddit/Telegram, popularity and hype proxy.
Watchlist Users: Number of CoinGecko users who added the coin to their watchlist. It serves as a measure of market attention.
Narrative: Current theme driving crypto capital - e.g. AI, RWA, memes.
Community (Score): A project-radar axis (0–10) rating the strength, growth and authenticity of the community.
Dominance Sentiment: An aggregate read of the BTC dominance trend: Altseason, Risk-Off or Neutral.
Social Volume: The number of mentions of an asset on social media over a period. This is a measure of crowd attention, not price.
Trending Score: A measure of how much an asset is trending. It combines searches and mentions into a single popularity score.

Project Categories

Layer 1 EVM: Main programmable blockchains compatible with EVM.
Layer 1 UTXO: Blockchains using UTXO model (Bitcoin, Litecoin, BCH, Dogecoin).
Layer 2 (L2): Networks built on top of L1 (mainly Ethereum) for scalability and lower fees.
Memecoins: Crypto without tech fundamentals, based on community and internet memes.
Stablecoins: Crypto pegged to another asset (usually $1): USDT, USDC, DAI.
Exchange Tokens: Native tokens of major exchanges: BNB, CRO, OKB, KCS.
DeFi (Decentralized Finance): Finance without banks: loans, swaps, savings, derivatives via smart contracts.
NFT: A unique digital token, e.g. art, in-game item, ticket.
DAO: An organization governed by token-holder votes, no CEO.
CeFi: Centralized Finance consists of exchanges and crypto companies with an owner.

Risk & Security

Liquidation: Forced closure of leveraged position when price hits liquidation threshold.
MEV (Maximal Extractable Value): Profit extracted by manipulating transaction order in a block.
Rug Pull: Scam: project creators withdraw liquidity and vanish with investor funds.
Honeypot: Smart contract designed so you can buy a token but not sell.
Phishing: Fake sites and messages stealing keys or approvals.
Slashing: PoS penalty: validator loses part of locked stake for misbehavior.
Cold Wallet: Offline wallet - keys never touch the internet.
Hot Wallet: Internet-connected wallet - convenient but exposed to hacks.
Exit Scam: Project team vanishes with investor money - site shut down, no contact.
51% Attack: Taking over more than 50% of a PoW network's hash power.
Sybil Attack: Creating thousands of fake identities to manipulate network/airdrop decisions.
Risk (Score): A project-radar axis (0–10), note the inverted scale: a HIGH score = LOW risk (better).
Sandwich Clusters: The number of detected sandwich-attack clusters in the analyzed window. A direct measure of MEV bot activity.
Maximum Drawdown: The deepest drop in value from a peak to the next trough, in percent.
Risk Contribution: The share of total portfolio volatility that a single position contributes.
Diversification: Spreading capital across many assets to reduce reliance on any single one.
Liquidation Cascade: A domino effect: liquidations push price, triggering more liquidations. It is a sharp, self-feeding move.