Crypto glossary

Terms

• AIFCThe Astana International Financial Centre, a special zone with its own law, where crypto exchanges are licensed by the AFSA regulator.
• AMLMeasures against money laundering. Exchangers and banks monitor suspicious operations.
• BitcoinThe first decentralised cryptocurrency, with supply capped at 21 million coins.
• BlockchainA shared public ledger of transactions kept by thousands of independent computers.
• Cold walletA way of storing crypto where keys never touch an internet-connected device.
• Crypto exchangeA platform where users trade crypto with each other at market prices.
• Crypto exchangerA company that buys and sells crypto for fiat money at its own rate.
• Custodial walletA wallet where a company, not the user, holds the keys. In a non-custodial wallet only you hold them.
• Digital assetThe legal term in Kazakh law for cryptocurrencies and tokens, which may be secured or unsecured.
• ERC20The token standard on Ethereum; transfer fees are paid in ETH and depend on network congestion.
• EthereumA blockchain platform for smart contracts whose coin, ETH, pays network fees.
• HalvingThe halving of bitcoin miners' reward, which happens roughly every four years.
• KYCCustomer identity verification by ID and selfie, mandatory for licensed exchangers.
• MiningConfirming blockchain transactions with computing power in exchange for new coins and fees.
• NBK licenseA National Bank of Kazakhstan license to exchange digital assets; without it an exchanger operates illegally.
• Network feeThe blockchain's charge for processing a transfer; it depends on the network and congestion, not the amount.
• P2PA crypto deal directly between two people, usually paid by card transfer.
• Private keyA secret number that proves the right to spend funds at an address.
• SatoshiThe smallest unit of bitcoin. 1 satoshi equals 0.00000001 BTC.
• Seed phraseA set of 12 or 24 words from which a wallet derives all its keys. Whoever knows the phrase owns the funds.
• Service feeAn exchanger's charge per trade on top of the rate, charged as a fixed amount, a percentage or both.
• SolanaA fast, low-fee blockchain whose coin, SOL, pays for operations and is used for staking.
• SpreadThe gap between an exchanger's buy and sell rates, its main source of income.
• StablecoinA cryptocurrency whose price is pegged to a stable asset, most often the US dollar.
• TONThe Open Network blockchain, linked to Telegram, with very low fees and fast transfers.
• Transaction hashA unique identifier of a blockchain transfer used to find it in a block explorer.
• TRC20The token standard on the Tron network, the most popular network for USDT transfers thanks to low fees.
• USDCA US-regulated stablecoin issued by Circle and pegged to the US dollar.
• USDTA stablecoin issued by Tether and pegged to the US dollar. 1 USDT is worth about 1 dollar.
• Wallet addressA public string of characters you can send crypto to, like an account number.