Crypto & DeFi glossary

Plain-English definitions for the words you meet when you swap, bridge and launch tokens.

Affiliate fee Aggregator Airdrop Approval Bonding curve Bridge Burn Custodial DEX ERC-20 EVM Freeze authority Gas Immutable metadata Inbound address KYC Liquidity pool LP tokens Market cap Memo Mint address Mint authority Multisender Non-custodial Price impact RUNE Rug pull Seed phrase Slippage Snapshot SPL token Stablecoin Streaming swap Wrapped token

Affiliate fee: A fee an interface adds to a swap. On THORChain it is written into the memo and paid directly by the protocol to the affiliate address.
Aggregator: A service that searches many exchanges and liquidity pools and splits a trade across them for the best price. Jupiter and LI.FI are aggregators.
Airdrop: Tokens sent to many wallets for free, often to early users of a project.
Approval: An EVM transaction that lets a smart contract move a specific ERC-20 token from your wallet. It is needed once per token and spender before a swap.
Bonding curve: A pricing formula where the token price rises automatically as more is bought. It is used by launchpads such as pump.fun.
Bridge: A protocol that moves value between blockchains, either by locking and minting wrapped tokens or through liquidity on both sides.
Burn: Sending tokens to an address nobody controls, or using a burn instruction, which permanently removes them from supply.
Custodial: A service that holds your coins and keys for you, like a centralised exchange.
DEX: Decentralised exchange. Trades happen through smart contracts and liquidity pools instead of an order book run by a company.
ERC-20: The standard token format on Ethereum and EVM chains such as Base, BNB Chain, Arbitrum and Avalanche.
EVM: Ethereum Virtual Machine. Chains that run it share the same address format (0x…) and wallets.
Freeze authority: A Solana token permission that lets its holder freeze any token account. Revoking it is a common trust signal.
Gas: The network fee paid to process a transaction, in the chain's native coin.
Immutable metadata: Token name, symbol and image that can no longer be changed by anyone.
Inbound address: The THORChain vault address on a source chain that receives your deposit for a swap. It rotates, so always use a fresh quote.
KYC: "Know your customer". Identity checks required by regulated, custodial services.
Liquidity pool: A smart contract holding two or more tokens that traders swap against. Providers earn fees for depositing tokens.
LP tokens: Tokens that represent a share of a liquidity pool. Burning or locking them shows that liquidity cannot be withdrawn.
Market cap: Circulating supply multiplied by the current price.
Memo: A short text instruction attached to a transaction. THORChain uses it to know what to swap into and where to send it.
Mint address: The unique on-chain address of a Solana token. Always verify it, because names can be copied.
Mint authority: The permission to create new tokens. Revoking it fixes the supply forever.
Multisender: A tool that sends tokens to many addresses in one go.
Non-custodial: You keep control of your keys and funds, and the service can only prepare transactions for you to sign.
Price impact: How much your own trade moves the pool price. It is larger for big trades in shallow pools.
RUNE: THORChain's native asset, which is paired against every pool and used to pay affiliate fees.
Rug pull: When a token's creators drain liquidity or dump supply on buyers, leaving the token worthless.
Seed phrase: The 12 or 24 words that control your wallet. Never share them with anyone or any website.
Slippage: The maximum price change you accept between quoting and execution before a swap reverts.
Snapshot: A record of every holder and their balance at a moment in time, often used for airdrops.
SPL token: The standard token format on Solana. Token-2022 is its newer version with extensions such as on-chain metadata.
Stablecoin: A token designed to track a currency such as the US dollar, for example USDC or USDT.
Streaming swap: A THORChain feature that splits a large swap into smaller sub-swaps over several blocks for a better price.
Wrapped token: A token on one chain that represents an asset from another, such as WBTC on Ethereum.