Crypto buying glossary: only the terms you will actually see

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BitcoinBTCBasics

The first and largest crypto asset by market value. Shown as BTC on screen. Watch out for other assets with similar-looking names.

SatoshisatBasics

The smallest unit of bitcoin. 1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats. A display like 18,432 sats means 0.00018432 BTC. Explained

FiatBasics

Government-issued money — dollars, euros, pounds. “Fiat deposit” on an interface means moving this kind of money onto the platform.

StablecoinBasics

A crypto asset whose price is pegged to a fiat currency, usually the US dollar. Used as a pricing and transfer instrument inside markets.

USDTTetherBasics

The most widely used dollar stablecoin. Peer-to-peer purchases usually give you this, and you then use it to buy BTC.

USDC

Another major dollar stablecoin. Same purpose as USDT; fee discounts on particular trading pairs may differ.

Token

General term for a crypto asset. “Asset” and “coin” on an interface usually mean the same thing.

BlockchainBasics

The public ledger recording transfers. You do not need to understand how it works to buy — but you do need to know that entries on it cannot be reversed.

On-chain

A transfer genuinely recorded on the blockchain. Buying and selling inside an exchange is not on-chain — it is numbers moving on the platform’s own ledger.

Network / mainnetBasics

The dropdown on the withdrawal screen. The same asset can exist on several networks, and choosing the wrong one means the coins are unrecoverable.

Centralised exchangeCEX

A company-run platform with support staff and identity verification. Assets in your account are held by the platform.

Decentralised exchangeDEX

No account, no support, interacted with directly from a wallet. Does not handle fiat, and there is nobody to appeal to if you make a mistake.

Markets

The price-viewing pages. If you are only looking rather than trading, these usually need no account at all.

24h change

Price movement relative to 24 hours ago. Crypto markets have no open or close, so it is a rolling window rather than “today”.

Candlestick chartK-line

The red and green bars on a price chart. You do not need to read these to buy for the first time.

Market cap

Price multiplied by circulating supply. Used to compare the scale of different assets. It says nothing about whether a price will rise.

Trading pair

What is being exchanged for what, written like BTC/USDT. The first is what you are buying, the second is what you are paying with.

KYCKnow Your CustomerSign-up

Identity verification. Name, document, face check. Required on any regulated platform for fiat purchases. Why

AMLAnti-Money Laundering

The body of regulation KYC exists to satisfy. Source-of-funds questions come from here.

Liveness check

The step where you turn your head or blink during face verification. It confirms a live person is present rather than a photograph.

Verification tier / account level

The more you submit, the higher the tier and the larger your limits. Basic verification carries the lowest limits.

Proof of address

A utility bill or bank statement, usually required only at higher tiers or for larger amounts.

Source of funds

Documentation of where your money came from — a payslip or bank statement. Triggered by larger deposits. Routine at any regulated institution.

Two-factor authentication2FASign-up

A second confirmation on top of your password. Use an authenticator app rather than SMS where possible.

Authenticator app

An app generating a rotating six-digit code. Not vulnerable to SIM-swap attacks the way SMS is.

Backup key / recovery codes

The long string shown when you bind an authenticator. Write it on paper. If the phone is lost, it is your only way back in.

Anti-phishing code

A phrase you choose that then appears in every genuine email from the platform. An email without it is fake.

Referral code

An identifier marking who referred an account. Can only be entered at the moment of registration. How it works here

Support ticket

A request raised through the platform’s own help centre. The only legitimate support channel — nobody messages you first.

Withdrawal cooling period

A window after registration or after a security change during which withdrawals are blocked. It expires automatically and nobody can speed it up.

Device management / login history

A security page listing which devices have signed in. You can revoke any you do not recognise.

Region prompt

A message routing you to the legal entity that serves your jurisdiction. Choose where you actually are. Detail

Deposit

Moving money or crypto onto the platform. Fiat deposit and crypto deposit are different screens.

One-click buy / express buyFunding

Buying directly from the platform at a single quoted price. Simplest, and usually 1–2% more expensive than the spot market.

Peer-to-peerP2P / C2CFunding

Trading directly with another user while the platform holds their crypto in escrow. The four rules

Escrow

The platform holding the seller’s asset during a peer-to-peer trade until you confirm payment. Leaving the platform means there is no escrow.

Completion rate

The proportion of a peer-to-peer counterparty’s orders that completed successfully. Below 95%, choose somebody else.

Release time

How long a peer-to-peer seller typically takes to release the asset after payment. Shorter is better.

Appeal

Escalating a stuck peer-to-peer order to platform arbitration. Only possible if the trade stayed inside the platform.

Payment reference

The code the platform asks you to put in your bank transfer note. Put only that — keywords get transfers stopped by bank screening.

SEPA / Faster Payments / ACH / PayNow / FPS / UPI / PIX

Domestic instant-transfer systems in various countries. Where one is available it is usually the cheapest way to fund. By region

3-D Secure

The bank confirmation step during a card payment. It times out quickly — have your phone ready before starting.

Cash advance

How many issuers classify a crypto purchase on a credit card: interest from day one, no grace period, plus a separate fee. Detail

Chargeback

Reversing a card payment through your bank. Attempting one on a purchase you authorised generally gets the account frozen.

Merchant category block

A bank policy declining crypto merchants outright. Not fixable from your side — change bank or change method.

Spread

The gap between what you are quoted and the actual market price. On a one-click buy this is usually the largest cost, and it never appears as a fee. Detail

Premium

The amount by which a peer-to-peer seller’s rate sits above market. This is where the cost lives when the platform fee is zero.

Deposit limit

A cap on how much you can move in, set by verification tier, payment method or region. Independent of one another.

Fiat withdrawal

Moving money back out to your bank. Must go to an account in your own name.

SpotOrdering

Buying the actual asset at the current price. This is the screen you want. If you see leverage multipliers, you are somewhere else.

Order book

The live list of standing buy and sell offers. Your order matches against it. Explained

Market orderOrdering

Fill immediately at whatever prices are available. Always fills; price is whatever it turns out to be.

Limit orderOrdering

Buy, but not above a price you set. Price is capped; whether it fills is not guaranteed. Cancellable for free while open.

Stop / stop-limit order

An order that only activates once the price reaches a trigger. Unnecessary for a first purchase.

Slippage

The difference between the price you saw and the price you got. Caused by your order being larger than the best offer, or by the market moving while you pressed.

Maker

An order that rests on the book rather than filling immediately. Usually charged a lower fee.

Taker

An order that fills immediately against what is already on the book. Usually charged more. A market order is always a taker order.

Filled

The order matched and the trade happened. A filled order cannot be reversed. Detail

Partially filled

Part of your order matched and the rest is still waiting. The filled part stands; you can cancel the remainder.

Open order

A limit order sitting on the book waiting. The funds are held against it until it fills or you cancel.

Order history

The record of what actually happened. The first place to look if you cannot find your coins. Detail

Trading fee

The published fee on a spot trade, usually a fraction of a percent. Often charged in the asset you bought.

Futures / perpetualsNot buying

Leveraged bets on price direction. You do not hold any bitcoin. Not what you want. Why this matters

Margin

Trading with borrowed funds. Same warning as futures — not buying.

Leverage

A multiplier on a position, shown as 5×, 10×, 100×. Seeing this anywhere on the screen means you are in the wrong place.

Liquidation

A leveraged position being force-closed when the price moves against it. The money is gone. Does not exist on spot.

Long / short

Betting on price rising or falling. Both are derivatives concepts, neither is buying.

Convert

A simplified swap between two assets at a quoted rate. Easier than the order book and usually slightly more expensive.

Spot wallet

Where assets bought on the spot market are held.

Funding wallet / fiat wallet

Where deposits and peer-to-peer purchases land. Coins bought via peer-to-peer often arrive here and need transferring to the spot wallet.

Earn / savings account

Where assets placed into a yield product sit. They cannot be traded until redeemed.

Internal transfer

Moving assets between your own wallets on the same platform. Instant and normally free.

Available versus frozen

An open limit order holds part of your funds, so “available” is less than the total. Cancelling releases it.

Hide small balancesMost common

A toggle, often on by default, that hides holdings below roughly one dollar. The single most common reason people cannot find a first purchase.

Wallet address

The destination string for an on-chain transfer. Always paste rather than type, then check the first four and last four characters.

Memo / tag

An extra identifier required by some assets when depositing to an exchange. Omit it and the funds cannot be attributed to you — recovery needs a support ticket.

Address whitelist

Restricts withdrawals to addresses you approved in advance. Strongly worth enabling.

Confirmations

How many blocks have been built on top of your transaction. Platforms credit deposits after a set number.

Transaction hashTxID

The unique identifier of an on-chain transfer. Used to look it up on a block explorer.

Block explorer

A public site for looking up any on-chain transaction by its hash.

Network fee / gas

The cost of an on-chain transfer, paid to the network. A flat amount that varies with congestion, which is why it hurts small withdrawals. Calculator

Seed phrase / recovery phrase

The 12 or 24 words that control a self-custody wallet. Anyone who has them has your funds. Nobody legitimate will ever ask for them.

Private key

The secret that authorises spending from an address. Same warning as a seed phrase.

Hot wallet / cold wallet

Connected to the internet, versus offline (hardware wallets are the latter). A beginner does not need to rush into cold storage.

Self-custody

Holding your own keys rather than leaving assets on a platform. More control, and losing the recovery phrase is permanent.

Dust

A balance too small to trade or withdraw economically. Some platforms let you convert it.

PhishingSecurity

A fake site or email imitating the real one to capture your credentials. How to check

Typosquatting

A domain differing from the real one by a character or two. Read the end of the domain, not the start.

SIM swap

An attacker persuading a carrier to move your number to their device, defeating SMS-based two-factor. The reason to use an authenticator app.

Fake support

Someone messaging you first, claiming to be the platform. Real support never initiates contact and never asks for a code. Detail

Screen sharing scam

Being asked to share your screen so somebody can “help”. They then see everything, including your codes.

Advance-fee scam

“Send a small amount to verify your wallet and we will return more.” A decade-old fraud that still runs.

Signal group / mentor

A group promising trade calls and showing profit screenshots. The screenshots are fabricated and the next step is always depositing on a fake platform.

Recovery scam

A service claiming it can retrieve funds you lost. It cannot — nothing reverses a confirmed transfer. It targets people who already lost money once.

Pig butchering

A long-running scam built on a relationship formed over weeks, ending in a fake investment platform. Any romantic or friendly contact that turns to crypto is this.

Rug pull

A project’s operators abandoning it and taking the money. Relevant if you stray beyond major assets.

Guaranteed returns

The single most reliable fraud indicator there is. Anybody promising a rate of return is running a scam, regardless of how plausible they sound.

Malicious browser extension

An add-on that can rewrite addresses you copy, or alter your bookmarks. A reason to type addresses rather than trusting saved links.

Address poisoning

Sending you a tiny transaction from an address resembling one you use, hoping you later copy it from your history. Always verify the full address.

Sideloading

Installing an app from outside the official store. A standard route for malicious apps, often presented as “the version for your region”.

The full walkthrough Where all of these terms come up
Market or limit order? Order book terms in context
What beginners get wrong most often The security terms in context

Last updated: 25 August 2026. Interface wording differs between platforms and changes over time. Searching and filtering happen entirely in your browser — nothing you type is sent anywhere. Not investment advice.