Key Terms

The English word "fiat" means "declaration." The implication is that fiat money has no inherent value. It is valuable only because the government declares it to be. The term was coined as national banks abandoned the gold standard.

ETFs are an opportunity to invest in a class or category of coins and tokens without selecting individual cryptocurrencies. The term is borrowed from the stock market, where ETF is the common term for exchange-traded funds.

Investors love bull markets: extended periods during which prices – of stocks, commodities, or cryptocurrencies – rise. But beware - you don't want to invest when the market is at its peak and there's nowhere for prices to go but down. 

Market capitalization illustrates the overall size of a cryptocurrency’s place in the market. To calculate a coin’s market cap, you simply multiply the number of coins that have been issued by the trading price of a single coin.

In conversation, we refer to any downward trend in prices as signs of a bear market, but professionals reserve the term for widespread declines of 20% or more over a period of at least two months. Shorter declines are merely corrections.

Investing is ultimately based on predictions. With technical analysis, you base your predictions on a commodity's previous performance. With fundamental analysis, you focus on cycles and outside events that influence prices.

You don’t need a brokerage account or a credit history to use DeFi apps. You don’t need a government ID. DeFi apps are publicly available on the blockchain for anyone to use without banks and investment firms.