Trading & Market Structure
Bull Flag Patterns
A bull flag pattern is a pole, a short consolidation and a breakout. How to identify one, what volume must do, and how often the measured move actually lands.
Read definition →Ledgers Academy Reference
Crypto Lexicon
47 focused definitions covering crypto markets, infrastructure, security, DeFi, and Bitcoin.
Choose a topic, then follow the examples and primary sources.
Trading & Market Structure
Auto-Deleveraging (ADL)
Auto-deleveraging closes profitable positions when the insurance fund cannot absorb a bankrupt one. How the liquidation waterfall and the ADL queue work.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Blind Signing
Blind signing means approving a transaction your wallet cannot decode. Why it happens, what EIP-712 and ERC-7730 change, and what your device never checks.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Stablecoin Address Freezes
Issuers can block an address using a function in the token contract. How USDT and USDC blocklists differ, and what a frozen holder actually sees.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
ETF Creation and Redemption
Only authorised participants mint and destroy ETF shares, in fixed baskets. How the arbitrage loop keeps price near NAV, and what in-kind changed in 2025.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Token Approvals and Wallet Drainers
A drainer collects standing permissions rather than seed phrases. How approvals, permit signatures and revocation actually work, and why disconnecting does nothing.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Upgradeable Contracts and Proxies
Upgradeable contracts let an admin key replace the logic behind a fixed address. How proxies work, where the pointers live, and what a timelock really buys.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Exchange Bankruptcy and Customer Claims
Whether you get your coins back is decided by a title clause and then by bankruptcy law. What the Celsius, FTX and Voyager records actually established.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Token Unlocks, Cliffs and FDV
A cliff releases a whole tranche at once. How vesting schedules set circulating supply, and why FDV depends on which convention a tracker uses.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Rollup Sequencers
One operator orders layer two transactions and posts them to layer one. What it can and cannot do to you, and how forced inclusion actually works.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Tracing and Recovering Stolen Crypto
Tracing is routine, recovery is not. The three chokepoints where funds can be frozen, and why an up front recovery fee is the second scam.
Read definition →Consensus & Security
The Validator Exit Queue
Three sequential stages stand between unstaking and arrival. How the ether denominated churn limit works, and why a long queue pushes an LST below peg.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Crypto Market Maker Deals
Two contract structures put inventory risk on opposite parties. What each pays for, and where legitimate market making ends and manufactured volume begins.
Read definition →Consensus & Security
Smart Contract Audits
An audit covers one commit, one file list, one date. What scope statements exclude, what static analysis misses, and how to read a report properly.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Counterfeit Hardware Wallets
The commonest fake arrives already initialised. Why tamper seals prove nothing, what a genuine check actually attests, and where the trust chain starts.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Pig Butchering Scams
A cryptocurrency investment confidence scam builds trust, shows invented profits, then extracts fees. Why the early successful withdrawal is part of the fraud.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Blockchain Oracles
A blockchain oracle writes off-chain prices on to a chain so smart contracts can read them. How price feeds work, push versus pull, and why oracles fail.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Fair Value Gap — FVG —
A Fair Value Gap (FVG) is a three candlestick price pattern that occurs during aggressive buying or selling, leaving an imbalance where only one side of market liquidity was delivered. The market frequently retests these zones to restore price balance.
Read definition →Bitcoin
Bitcoin Genesis Block
Learn what the Bitcoin Genesis Block is, why it is called Block 0, what Satoshi embedded in it, and how it launched the Bitcoin blockchain.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
BIP39 Passphrase
A BIP39 Passphrase, commonly referred to as the 25th word, is an optional custom string of characters added on top of a standard 12 or 24 word recovery phrase to generate a completely separate, hidden cryptographic wallet.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Order Blocks
An Order Block (OB) is the specific candlestick price range where institutional market participants placed large accumulation or distribution orders prior to an aggressive market breakout.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Impermanent Loss
Impermanent Loss is the difference in value between holding tokens in your personal private wallet versus depositing them into an Automated Market Maker (AMM) liquidity pool when the relative price of the paired tokens diverges.
Read definition →Bitcoin
Bitcoin Halving
Learn how the Bitcoin halving cycle cuts block rewards every 210,000 blocks, affects miner economics, and changes new supply without guaranteeing price.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Liquidity Sweeps
A Liquidity Sweep, also known as a liquidity grab or stop run, occurs when price briefly pierces above a key high or below a key low to trigger resting retail stop orders before reversing aggressively in the opposite direction.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Funding Rates
Funding Rates are recurring periodic payments exchanged directly between long and short traders on perpetual futures contracts to keep the derivative price pegged to the underlying spot index price.
Read definition →Consensus & Security
Proof of Work vs Proof of Stake
Proof of Work (PoW) uses physical computational power and electricity to validate transactions and secure the network, while Proof of Stake (PoS) uses deposited cryptocurrency capital and economic incentives to select transaction validators.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Maximum Extractable Value — MEV —
Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) refers to the maximum value that block producers and automated searcher bots can extract from users by arbitrarily including, excluding, or reordering transactions within a blockchain block.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Account Abstraction — ERC-4337 —
Account Abstraction is a blockchain upgrade standardized by ERC4337 that transforms traditional user crypto accounts into programmable smart contracts, enabling biometric logins, social recovery, automated recurring payments, and gasless transactions without seed phrase vulnerability.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Liquid Staking Tokens — LSTs —
Liquid Staking is a mechanism where users deposit Proof of Stake tokens into a staking protocol and receive a synthetic Liquid Staking Token (LST) representing their underlying stake plus accrued rewards, allowing capital to remain liquid across DeFi.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Slippage
Slippage is the difference between the expected price of a trade and the actual executed price at which the transaction is finalized on the blockchain, caused by market volatility, low liquidity, or high network latency.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Gas Fees and EIP-1559
Gas Fees are computational transaction fees paid in native cryptocurrency (such as ETH, SOL, or AVAX) by users to compensate network validators for the processing power, storage, and bandwidth required to execute transactions.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Smart Contracts
A Smart Contract is a self executing digital agreement with the terms of the contract directly written into lines of code, deployed immutably on a decentralized blockchain network that executes autonomously without human intermediaries.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Bonding Curves
Learn how crypto bonding curves price tokens, how launchpad graduation works, what a dynamic bonding curve changes, and which risks buyers face.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Zero-Knowledge Proofs — ZK —
A Zero Knowledge Proof (ZKP) is a cryptographic protocol that allows one party (the prover) to prove to another party (the verifier) that a specific statement is mathematically true without revealing any underlying confidential information.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
US Dollar Index — DXY —
The US Dollar Index (DXY) is a benchmark financial index that measures the exchange value of the United States Dollar relative to a basket of six major global currencies: the Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Canadian Dollar, Swedish Krona, and Swiss Franc.
Read definition →Bitcoin
UTXO
UTXO means unspent transaction output. Learn how Bitcoin UTXOs form wallet balances, create change, affect fees, and differ from account models.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Wash Trading
Wash Trading is an illegal form of market manipulation where a single entity simultaneously buys and sells the exact same asset to itself, creating the false illusion of high trading volume, liquidity, and organic market interest.
Read definition →Bitcoin
Taproot and Schnorr Signatures
Taproot is a major soft fork upgrade activated on the Bitcoin network in November 2021 that introduced Schnorr Signatures and Merkelized Alternative Script Trees (MAST), dramatically enhancing transaction privacy, efficiency, and smart contract capability.
Read definition →Bitcoin
Lightning Network
The Lightning Network is a decentralized Layer 2 scaling protocol built on top of Bitcoin that uses bidirectional offchain payment channels to enable instant, high throughput transactions with near zero network fees.
Read definition →DeFi & Token Mechanics
Restaking and Shared Security
Restaking is a mechanism pioneered by EigenLayer that allows users with staked Ethereum (or Liquid Staking Tokens) to repurpose their capital to secure secondary protocols, bridges, and oracle networks simultaneously, earning additional yield.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Multi-Party Computation — MPC —
Learn how an MPC wallet uses distributed key shares, how multi-party computation signing works, and how MPC differs from multisig custody.
Read definition →Trading & Market Structure
Wyckoff Method
The Wyckoff Method is a classical technical analysis framework developed by Richard Wyckoff that identifies how institutional smart money manipulates market supply and demand through four distinct cycle phases: Accumulation, Markup, Distribution, and Markdown.
Read definition →Governance
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations — DAOs —
A Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) is an internet native, community led entity governed by immutable smart contracts rather than centralized corporate hierarchies, where members vote on proposals using governance tokens.
Read definition →Blockchain Infrastructure
Cross-Chain Bridges
Cross-chain bridge protocols move assets and messages between blockchains. Learn lock-and-mint mechanics, trust models, bridge risks, and safer use.
Read definition →Wallets & Security
Crypto Dusting Attacks
Learn what crypto dusting is, how a dusting attack can link wallet activity, why scam tokens appear, and how coin control helps protect privacy.
Read definition →Consensus & Security
Staking Slashing
Learn how Ethereum slashing and proof-of-stake penalties work, which validator actions are slashable, and what slashing risk means for delegators.
Read definition →Consensus & Security
Proof of Reserves — PoR —
Learn how a proof-of-reserves or PoR audit uses onchain assets and Merkle trees, what users can verify, and why PoR does not prove full solvency.
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