GURU GUIDE · START HERE
New to crypto? Start with seven short lessons, then use the glossary whenever a word trips you up. No jargon without an explanation, and no hype.
Each lesson builds on the one before. Tap a lesson to open it. Words in green are in the glossary below.
A cryptocurrency is digital money that lives on a shared record called a blockchain. Instead of a bank keeping track of who owns what, thousands of computers around the world keep identical copies of the record and agree on every change.
Bitcoin was the first, launched in 2009. Today there are thousands of others, often called altcoins. Some aim to be money, some power apps, and some are pure speculation.
In one line: crypto lets you send value directly to anyone, anywhere, without a bank in the middle, but it also means there's no bank to reverse a mistake.
Transactions are grouped into blocks. Each block contains a fingerprint (a hash) of the block before it, so they form a chain. Changing an old transaction would change its fingerprint and break every block after it, which the rest of the network would reject.
Networks agree on the next block in one of two main ways:
Why it matters: once a transaction has enough confirmations, it's practically permanent.
You'll also see memecoins (based on jokes and internet culture, very volatile), NFTs (one-of-a-kind tokens) and wrapped tokens (a copy of one coin that works on another blockchain).
Good habit: before buying anything, find out what it's for and who controls its supply. Its tokenomics tell you a lot.
Your crypto never actually sits "in" a wallet. It stays on the blockchain. A wallet holds the private key that proves the coins are yours and lets you move them.
Never share your seed phrase. Anyone who has it can take everything. No real company, support agent or app will ever ask for it.
A price is simply where buyers and sellers agree to trade. Exchanges match them in an order book: a list of bids (offers to buy) and asks (offers to sell). The gap between the best of each is the spread.
Market cap is the price multiplied by the number of coins in circulation. It tells you how big a project is, which matters more than the price of one coin: a R1 coin isn't "cheaper" than a R1 million coin in any useful sense.
Crypto is known for high volatility. Moves of 10% in a day are common, and smaller coins can halve or double in a week.
See it live: our Prices in rand pages show aggregated prices, and Whale Watch shows real order books from the biggest exchanges.
Most South Africans buy crypto on an exchange that lets you deposit rand (ZAR) by EFT and trade directly against it. Things worth knowing:
Start small. Make a small test deposit and withdrawal first, so you understand the process before moving larger amounts.
Because crypto transactions can't be reversed, scammers love it. The common patterns:
Golden rule: only put in money you can afford to lose, and if it sounds too good to be true, it is.
Every term in plain English, with an example where it helps. Search, or filter by topic.
A string of letters and numbers that identifies where crypto can be sent, like an account number. Each blockchain has its own address format.
Example: Sending Bitcoin to an Ethereum address can lose it, so always check the network.
A scam where a criminal sends you a tiny transaction from an address that looks almost identical to one you use, hoping you'll copy the wrong one next time.
Example: Always check the whole address, not just the first and last few characters.
Free tokens sent to wallets, usually to reward early users or promote a project. Unexpected airdrops can also be scam bait.
The highest price a coin has ever reached.
Any cryptocurrency other than Bitcoin.
A period when many altcoins rise faster than Bitcoin.
Rules that require financial companies, including crypto platforms, to watch for and report suspicious transactions.
A type of decentralised exchange where prices are set by a formula and a pool of tokens rather than an order book.
Yearly interest rates. APR is simple interest; APY includes compounding, so it looks higher. Very high APYs usually mean very high risk.
Buying on one exchange and selling on another to profit from a price difference.
Example: If Bitcoin is cheaper on one exchange than another, an arbitrage trader buys low and sells high at the same time.
The lowest price a seller is currently willing to accept. Also called the offer.
An independent security review of a project's code. An audit lowers risk but doesn't guarantee safety.
A long period of falling prices and gloomy sentiment.
The highest price a buyer is currently willing to pay.
The first and largest cryptocurrency, launched in 2009 by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto. Its supply is capped at 21 million coins.
A batch of transactions added to a blockchain together.
A website that lets anyone look up transactions, addresses and blocks on a public blockchain.
A shared record of transactions, copied across thousands of computers, where each new block links to the one before. This makes past records very hard to change.
A service that moves tokens from one blockchain to another. Bridges have been a frequent target for hackers.
A long period of rising prices and optimism.
A price chart bar showing the opening, closing, highest and lowest price over a period. Green usually means the price rose; red means it fell.
A business authorised by the FSCA to provide financial services related to crypto assets in South Africa, such as advice or arranging trades.
A company-run platform where you deposit money and trade crypto. Convenient, but the exchange holds your funds.
A contract that lets you speculate on a price going up or down without owning the asset, often with leverage. High risk.
The number of coins currently available to trade. Used to calculate market cap.
A wallet whose keys are kept offline, such as a hardware wallet or paper backup. Much harder to hack.
Each new block added after your transaction counts as one confirmation. More confirmations mean the transaction is more final.
The process a blockchain network uses to agree on which transactions are valid.
Digital money secured by cryptography and recorded on a blockchain, usually without a central issuer like a bank.
When a company, such as an exchange, holds your private keys for you.
A group run by rules written in code, where token holders vote on decisions.
Buying a fixed amount at regular intervals, whatever the price, instead of all at once. It smooths out the price you pay.
Example: Buying R500 of Bitcoin every month.
Not controlled by a single company, government or person.
An exchange that runs on smart contracts, where you trade directly from your own wallet.
Financial services such as lending, borrowing and trading built on blockchains, without banks.
Contracts whose value comes from an underlying asset, such as futures and options.
A short-term price drop. "Buying the dip" means buying after a fall, hoping it recovers.
Bitcoin's share of the total crypto market cap. Rising dominance often means money is moving from altcoins to Bitcoin.
How far a price has fallen from its recent peak, usually shown as a percentage.
The native coin of the Ethereum network, used to pay transaction fees.
A blockchain that runs smart contracts, powering most DeFi apps, stablecoins and NFTs.
South African Reserve Bank rules on moving money offshore. Buying crypto offshore counts towards your yearly foreign investment allowances.
Government-issued money such as the rand or the US dollar.
South Africa's financial crime watchdog. Crypto platforms must report suspicious activity to it and follow its rules on transfers.
The urge to buy because prices are rising fast and everyone else seems to be making money. A common cause of buying at the top.
A change to a blockchain's rules. A hard fork can split one blockchain into two separate ones.
The Financial Sector Conduct Authority, South Africa's market conduct regulator. It licenses crypto asset service providers.
Negative news or rumours, true or false, that make people sell.
What a project would be worth if every coin that will ever exist were already in circulation. A big gap between FDV and market cap means lots of new supply is coming.
Regular payments between long and short traders on perpetual futures, which keep the futures price close to the spot price.
Contracts to buy or sell at a set price on a future date. Usually traded with leverage.
The fee paid to process a transaction or run a smart contract, mainly on Ethereum.
A token that gives holders voting rights over a project's decisions.
An event roughly every four years when Bitcoin's new-coin reward to miners is cut in half, slowing new supply.
A small device that stores your private keys offline and signs transactions without exposing them to the internet.
A unique digital fingerprint of data. Change even one character and the hash changes completely.
The total computing power securing a proof-of-work blockchain like Bitcoin.
Holding crypto long term instead of selling during ups and downs. It started as a typo of "hold".
A scam token you can buy but can't sell, because the code blocks selling.
A wallet connected to the internet, such as a phone app or exchange account. Convenient for small amounts, but more exposed to hacks.
The loss a liquidity provider can suffer when token prices in a pool move apart, compared with simply holding the tokens.
Identity checks that regulated platforms must do before you can trade, such as verifying your ID and address.
A base blockchain, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Solana.
A network built on top of a Layer 1 to make transactions faster and cheaper, while relying on the Layer 1 for security.
Borrowing to trade a bigger position than your own money allows. It multiplies gains and losses.
Example: With 10x leverage, a 10% price move against you can wipe out your whole position.
An order to buy or sell only at a price you choose or better.
Staking coins while receiving a token that represents them, so you can still use that value elsewhere.
When an exchange automatically closes a leveraged position because losses have used up the trader's deposit.
How easily something can be bought or sold without moving its price. High liquidity means tight spreads and deep order books.
A pot of tokens locked in a smart contract that people trade against on a decentralised exchange.
A bet that the price will rise.
The money you put down as a deposit when trading with leverage.
Price multiplied by circulating supply. It shows how big a project is.
Example: A coin at R10 with 1 billion coins in circulation has a market cap of R10 billion.
A trader or firm that constantly places buy and sell orders, keeping markets liquid.
An order to buy or sell immediately at the best available price.
The most coins that can ever exist, if the project has a cap. Bitcoin's is 21 million.
A coin based on a joke, meme or internet culture, usually with no real use. Extremely volatile.
Example: Dogecoin is the best-known example.
The waiting room for transactions that have been sent but not yet added to a block.
Using computers to secure a proof-of-work blockchain and earn new coins as a reward.
A wallet that needs more than one key to approve a transaction, such as 2 of 3 people.
A unique token that proves ownership of a specific digital item, such as art, a collectible or a ticket.
A computer that keeps a copy of the blockchain and helps check transactions.
A wallet where you hold your own private keys. You're in full control, and fully responsible.
A crypto saying: if someone else holds your private keys, you depend on them to give your coins back.
A service that feeds real-world data, such as prices, into smart contracts.
The live list of buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks) on an exchange, sorted by price.
Large trades arranged privately rather than on a public order book, so they don't move the market price.
Futures with no expiry date, the most traded crypto product worldwide. They use funding rates to track the spot price.
Fake emails, messages or websites designed to steal your login details or seed phrase.
A long-con scam where a stranger builds a friendship or romance online, then persuades the victim to invest on a fake platform.
A scam that pays early investors with money from new investors. It collapses when new money stops. Promises of fixed high returns are the giveaway.
The secret code that controls your crypto. Whoever has it can move the coins.
A way of securing a blockchain where validators lock up coins as a deposit. Uses far less energy than proof of work.
A way of securing a blockchain where miners compete using computing power. Used by Bitcoin.
A code made from your private key that others can use to send you crypto. Safe to share.
When a group hypes a coin to push the price up, then sells to the late buyers, causing a crash.
Traditional assets such as government bonds, property or gold represented as tokens on a blockchain.
A follow-up scam targeting people who already lost money, falsely promising to recover it for a fee.
When a project's creators suddenly drain its funds or dump their tokens and disappear.
The South African Revenue Service treats crypto gains as taxable, as income or a capital gain depending on how you trade. Swapping one coin for another can also be a taxable event.
The smallest unit of Bitcoin: one hundred-millionth of a coin. Named after Bitcoin's creator.
A list of 12 or 24 words that backs up your wallet. Anyone with it can take your crypto, so never share it or store it online.
Holding your crypto in a wallet where you control the keys, instead of on an exchange.
A bet that the price will fall.
The difference between the price you expected and the price you got, common in fast or thin markets.
A program on a blockchain that runs automatically when conditions are met, without a middleman.
Manipulating people into giving away information or money, for example by pretending to be support staff.
Buying and selling the actual coin for immediate delivery, as opposed to futures or CFDs.
The gap between the best bid and the best ask. A tight spread means a liquid market.
A crypto asset designed to keep a steady value, usually US$1, by holding reserves or using other mechanisms.
Example: USDT and USDC are the largest.
Locking up coins to help secure a proof-of-stake network, in return for rewards.
An order that sells automatically if the price falls to a level you set, limiting losses.
Price levels where buying (support) or selling (resistance) has tended to stop a move before.
A maker adds an order to the order book; a taker trades against an existing order. Exchanges often charge takers more.
A crypto asset built on an existing blockchain rather than having its own.
The economics of a token: its supply, how new coins are released, who holds them and what they're used for.
All coins created so far, including ones that are locked or not yet circulating.
Two assets traded against each other, such as BTC/ZAR or ETH/USDT.
The fee paid to the network to process a transaction. It varies with how busy the network is.
A rule requiring crypto platforms to share sender and receiver details when moving crypto between them, to fight money laundering. In force in South Africa through the FIC.
The total value of crypto deposited in a DeFi app or blockchain, a rough measure of how much it's used.
A second check when logging in, such as a code from an authenticator app. App-based 2FA is safer than SMS codes.
A token used to access a product or service, such as paying fees on a network.
A participant in a proof-of-stake network who checks transactions and proposes blocks, with coins at stake as a guarantee of honesty.
How sharply a price moves up and down. Crypto is far more volatile than shares or currencies.
The total value traded over a period, usually 24 hours.
An unusually large buy or sell order in the order book that can slow price moves. Walls can be cancelled at any time.
An app or device that stores your keys and lets you send, receive and view your crypto.
The idea of an internet where users own their data and assets through blockchains.
Someone who holds or trades very large amounts of a cryptocurrency, enough to move the price.
A document published by a project explaining what it does, how it works and its tokenomics.
A token that represents another asset on a different blockchain, such as wrapped Bitcoin on Ethereum.
Moving crypto between DeFi apps to earn the highest rewards. Can be very high risk.
No terms match. Try a shorter word.
The Guru Guide is general education to help you understand the market. It isn't financial advice and doesn't consider your circumstances. Crypto assets are high risk and you can lose all the money you put in. Crypto Guru is not an authorised financial services provider.