Address: An alphanumeric reference to where crypto assets can be sent or stored.
Bitcoin: The first system of global, decentralized, scarce, digital money as initially introduced in a white paper titled Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System by Satoshi Nakamoto.
Block: Synonymous with digital pages in a ledger. Blocks are added to an existing blockchain as transactions occur on the network. Miners are rewarded for “mining” a new block.
Blockchain: A cryptographically secure digital ledger that maintains a record of all transactions that occur on the network and follows a consensus protocol for confirming new blocks to be added to the blockchain.
Cold storage: The storage of private keys in any fashion that is disconnected from the internet. Common cold storage examples include offline computers, USB drives, or paper records.
Crypto: A broad term for any cryptography-based market, system, application, or decentralized network.
Crypto asset (or ‘token’): Any digital asset built using blockchain technology, including cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and security tokens.
Crypto Asset Volatility: Represents our internal measure of crypto volatility in the market relative to prior periods. The volatility of crypto assets is measured on an hourly basis (using 10 minute price intervals within each hour) for each crypto asset supported for trading on Coinbase, averaged over the applicable time period (quarterly), then weighted by each crypto asset’s share of total trading volume during the same time period across a select set of trading platforms, in addition to the Coinbase platform, that operate in similar markets including itBit, Bitfinex, Bitstamp, bitFlyer, Binance.US, Binance, Kraken, Gemini, Bittrex, and Poloniex.
Cryptocurrency: Bitcoin and alternative coins, or ‘altcoins’, launched after the success of Bitcoin. This category of crypto asset is designed to work as a medium of exchange, store of value, or to power applications and excludes security tokens.
Cryptoeconomy: A new open financial system built upon crypto.
Customer: A retail user, institution, or ecosystem partner on our platform.
DeFi: Short for Decentralized Finance. Peer-to-peer software-based network of protocols that can be used to facilitate traditional financial services like borrowing, lending, trading derivatives, insurance, and more through smart contracts.
Ecosystem partners: Developers, creators, merchants, asset issuers, organizations and financial institutions, and other groups building decentralized protocols, applications, products, or other services for the cryptoeconomy.
Ethereum: A decentralized global computing platform that supports smart contract transactions and peer-to-peer applications, or “Ether,” the native crypto assets on the Ethereum network.
Fork: A fundamental change to the software underlying a blockchain which results in two different blockchains, the original, and the new version. In some instances, the fork results in the creation of a new token.
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Hodl: A term used in the crypto community for holding a crypto asset through ups and downs, rather than selling it.
Hot wallet: A wallet that is connected to the internet, enabling it to broadcast transactions.
Institutions: Businesses that include hedge funds, small to large financial institutions, and corporations.
Miner: Individuals or entities who operate a computer or group of computers that add new transactions to blocks, and verify blocks created by other miners. Miners collect transaction fees and are rewarded with new tokens for their services.
Mining: The process by which new blocks are created, and thus new transactions are added to the blockchain.
Network: The collection of all miners that use computing power to maintain the ledger and add new blocks to the blockchain. Most networks are decentralized, reducing the risk of a single point of failure.
Protocol: A type of algorithm or software that governs how a blockchain operates.
Public key or private key: Each public address has a corresponding public key and private key that are cryptographically generated. A private key allows the recipient to access any funds belonging to the address, similar to a bank account password. A public key helps validate transactions that are broadcasted to and from the address. Addresses are shortened versions of public keys, which are derived from private keys.
Retail users: Individual users with an account on our platform.
Security token: A crypto asset that is a security. This includes digital forms of traditional equity or fixed income securities, or may be assets deemed to be a security based on their characterization as an investment contract or note.
Smart contract: Software that digitally facilitates or enforces a rules-based agreement or terms between transacting parties.
Stablecoin: Crypto assets designed to minimize price volatility. A stablecoin is designed to track the price of an underlying asset such as fiat money or an exchange-traded commodity (such as precious metals or industrial metals). Stablecoins can be backed by fiat money or other crypto assets.
Staking: An energy efficient equivalent of mining. Stakers use pools of tokens as collateral to validate transactions and create blocks. In exchange for this service, stakers earn a reward.
Supported crypto assets: The crypto assets we support for trading and/or custody on our platform, which included over 90 crypto assets as of December 31, 2020.
USD Coin or USDC: A stablecoin issued through the Centre Consortium (co-founded by Coinbase and Circle Internet Financial Limited, or Circle), backed by fully reserved assets, held by the issuer, and able to be purchased and sold on a 1:1 basis for U.S. dollars.
Wallet: A place to store public and private keys for crypto assets. Wallets are typically software, hardware, or paper-based.
Wallet user: A retail user who has established an account with a username on our non-custodial software-based product. Coinbase Wallet is an application that allows the user to connect to DeFi applications and self-custody crypto assets. While they operate separately from our main