Crypto Accounting Glossary

According to this rule, if you sell a cryptocurrency asset at a loss, you cannot repurchase the same asset within a 30-day period after the sale and report it as a tax loss.

An API is a set of rules that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. It determines the ways in which systems, applications, or devices can interact. Crypto exchanges often provide APIs to enable automated trading.

Specialized hardware for cryptocurrency mining. An Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) is a type of hardware used in the process of mining certain cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. ASICs are designed to perform a specific task, in this case, solving the mathematical problems that secure the network and generate new coins.

ATH, or All-Time High, refers to the highest price or market capitalization that a cryptocurrency has ever reached in its entire history. This is often a significant point of interest and analysis in the crypto market.

The lowest price ever reached by a cryptocurrency. ATL, or All-Time Low, refers to the lowest price or market capitalization that a cryptocurrency has ever reached in its entire history.

An open-source, non-custodial protocol on Ethereum for decentralized lending and borrowing.

In traditional and crypto accounting alike, an account receivable refers to the outstanding invoices a company has or the money the company is owed from its clients. In a cryptocurrency context, this could be payments for goods or services rendered that are made via crypto tokens.

A period of time for which financial statements are prepared.

An accounting method that records income and expenses when they are incurred, regardless of when cash is exchanged.

A cryptocurrency address, also known as a public key, is a unique identifier that allows a user to receive funds. It's equivalent to a bank account number in the traditional financial world.

An airdrop is a distribution of free tokens or digital assets to a targeted group of individuals, often used for marketing and promoting cryptocurrencies and projects.

Aleph.im is a cross-blockchain decentralized storage and computing network. It offers decentralized databases, computation, and a decentralized identification framework.

Algorand is a self-sustaining, decentralized, blockchain-based network that supports a wide range of applications.

Set of rules for solving a problem in a finite number of steps.

Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.

The paying off of debt in regular installments over a period of time. Amortization involves spreading payments over multiple periods. In the context of crypto, this might involve a loan that's paid off over time, potentially with a cryptocurrency as collateral. It can also refer to the gradual reduction in the value of an intangible asset (e.g., software or a patent).

The state of being unidentifiable in a transaction.

Legal controls that require financial institutions to prevent, detect, and report money laundering activities.

Simultaneous buying and selling of an asset to profit from price differences.

The minimum price that a seller is willing to accept for an asset.

In financial and accounting terms, assets are resources owned by a business, organization, or individual that are expected to provide future benefits. In the context of cryptocurrency or crypto accounting, assets typically refer to the cryptocurrencies or digital assets owned by an individual or an organization. These can include a wide variety of different types of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and many others, as well as tokens representing digital goods, services, or other types of assets on a blockchain.

Total market value of the investments managed by a firm or individual.

Atomic swaps can be defined as smart contract-based transactions that enable the exchange of cryptocurrencies between two parties without the involvement of intermediaries.

A crypto audit is the examination of a cryptocurrency project's codebase and security features.

A type of decentralized exchange protocol that relies on a mathematical formula to price assets. An automated market maker (AMM) is a type of decentralized exchange (DEX) model that allows digital assets to be traded in a permissionless and automatic way by using liquidity pools rather than a traditional market of buyers and sellers.

A scalable, open-source platform for launching decentralized applications. Avalanche is a decentralized application network with its own family of interoperable chains. It uses a novel consensus protocol to achieve high throughput and low latency, enabling the development and operation of scalable, high-performance decentralized applications.

The average cost method is an inventory costing method in which the total cost of all the identical goods bought or produced is divided by the number of goods to compute the average cost. In crypto accounting, the average cost method calculates the cost basis of cryptocurrencies by taking the average of all purchase prices.

A person who holds a significant quantity of a particular cryptocurrency despite its decline in value.

A financial statement that reports a company's assets, liabilities, and shareholders' equity at a specific point in time.

A financial market where prices are falling or expected to fall.