A plain-language glossary of crypto payment terms
Definitions written for someone running a business, not for someone trading. Each one says what the term means, why it matters if you take or send payments, and what it changes about a decision you might be making.
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No jargon used to explain jargon
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Every entry links to the page where the thing actually happens
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Where a term is used loosely across the industry, we say so
Payments and processing
Payment orchestration
Routing each transaction to one of several providers.
Merchant of record
The legal seller, on the receipt and owing the tax.
Settlement
When value reaches you in a form you can actually use.
Chargeback
A forced reversal of a card payment, ordered by a bank.
Network fee
What the blockchain charges to process a transaction.
Confirmation
One block added after the one holding your transaction.
Underpayment
A payment that arrives for less than the invoiced amount.
Payment link
A URL that opens a checkout for one specific amount.
Order status
The field that tells you where a payment has got to.
Assets and networks
Digital asset
Value that exists only as a record, proven by that record.
Stablecoin
A digital asset built to hold a fixed value in a currency.
Wallet address
The public destination a crypto transfer is sent to.
Transaction hash
The public identifier of one blockchain transaction.
Gas fee
The metered cost of doing computation on a blockchain.
Blockchain network
The shared ledger a given transfer actually travels on.
Layer 2
A cheaper network built on top of another blockchain.
EURC
A euro stablecoin issued by Circle, one EURC to one euro.
Moving money
Cross-border payments
A transfer where payer and recipient sit in different countries.
Mass payout
One instruction that pays many recipients at once.
Crypto treasury management
Deciding what digital assets your company holds, and where.
Remittance
Money an individual sends to someone in another country.
On-ramp
A service that turns conventional money into crypto.
Off-ramp
A service that turns crypto back into money in a bank.
Deposit address
An address assigned to identify who is paying you.
Settlement currency
What an incoming payment becomes once it reaches you.
Beneficiary
A saved recipient with an address you already verified.
Compliance and risk
Sanctions screening
Checking a counterparty against government sanctions lists.
KYB
Verifying a company: who owns it, and what it does.
Source of funds
Where one specific payment came from, and how you know.
MiCA
The EU regulation that licenses crypto firms across the bloc.
Travel rule
Sender and recipient data that must travel with a transfer.
KYC
Verifying that a person really is who they claim to be.
AML
The framework that stops criminal money being disguised.
CASP
The MiCA licence for holding or moving crypto for others.
Custody
Holding a digital asset on somebody else's behalf.
MPC
Splitting a private key so the whole key never exists.
Self-custody
Holding your own keys, with everything that follows.
Four-eye approval
A second person must approve before an action takes effect.
Frequently asked questions
Who is this written for?
Someone evaluating, integrating or reconciling crypto payments for a business. Not traders, and not developers hunting parameter names, though entries link to the API reference where that is what you need next.
How is an entry different from a blog post?
An entry answers one question and stops. A blog post argues something. Where we have both, the entry defines the term and links to the post for the argument.
Why is it grouped rather than alphabetical?
Because alphabetical lists are easy to build and hard to use. Grouping by the part of the job a term belongs to means you can find a word you do not know the name of yet.
A term is missing. Can you add it?
Tell us which one. Contact us