Crypto Swap Glossary
Short, practical definitions of the words you run into when swapping crypto without an account. Each entry links to the guides and pairs where the term matters.
- AML (Anti-Money Laundering)
- Laws and procedures that aim to stop criminals from disguising illegal funds as legitimate money.
- BEP-20
- The token standard on BNB Smart Chain, compatible with Ethereum's ERC-20.
- Confirmation
- A new block added after the block that contains your transaction; more confirmations mean more finality.
- Destination tag
- A number attached to an XRP payment that tells a shared address which customer the funds belong to.
- ERC-20
- The standard for fungible tokens on Ethereum, used by USDT, USDC, LINK, SHIB, PEPE and many others.
- Fixed rate
- A swap quote that locks the amount you will receive, as long as you send the deposit within the quote window.
- Floating rate
- A swap quote that is recalculated at the market rate when your deposit is processed.
- KYC (Know Your Customer)
- Identity checks that regulated financial services run on customers before or while serving them.
- Memo
- An extra field on some blockchains that identifies who a payment is for when many users share one address.
- Mempool
- The waiting area where valid transactions sit until a miner or validator includes them in a block.
- Non-custodial
- A wallet or service where you, not a company, control the private keys and therefore the funds.
- Privacy coin
- A cryptocurrency designed to hide transaction details such as sender, receiver or amount.
- Ring signature
- A signature that proves one member of a group signed, without revealing which one; Monero uses it to hide spent outputs.
- Slippage
- The difference between the price you expect for a trade and the price you actually get.
- SPL token
- The token standard on Solana, used for USDT, USDC and most other Solana tokens.
- Travel Rule
- A rule requiring crypto service providers to send and receive originator and beneficiary information with transfers.
- TRC20
- The token standard on the TRON blockchain, best known for TRC20 USDT.
- View key
- A Monero key that lets its holder see incoming payments to a wallet without being able to spend them.