CEX (centralized exchange)
An exchange run by a company that holds user funds in its own wallets and provides liquidity and order matching (for example, Binance, Coinbase).
See also
DeFi
Decentralized Finance — an ecosystem of blockchain applications (lending, trading, insurance) that operates without banks or other traditional intermediaries.
NFT
A Non-Fungible Token — a unique blockchain record that certifies ownership of a specific digital or physical item, such as artwork, music, or a ticket.
DEX (decentralized exchange)
An exchange where trades happen directly between users via smart contracts, without a central operating company and without depositing funds with a third party.
Staking
Locking up cryptocurrency to help validate transactions in Proof-of-Stake networks. In return, the participant earns rewards, but risks losing part of the stake if the network's rules are broken.
Yield farming
A DeFi strategy in which a user supplies assets to protocols (for example, liquidity pools) in order to earn interest income or additional tokens.
Liquidity pool
A shared reserve of two or more tokens locked in a smart contract that enables asset swaps on decentralized exchanges without a traditional order book.