Stablecoin glossary
Each term gives our own definition and the source text it rests on: regulators, laws, central banks and the issuers' own contracts and terms. Where the sources disagree, the term page says so.
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| KYC / AML | Customer identification (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) controls that FATF standards and laws such as the GENIUS Act expect of issuers and VASPs. |
| Stablecoin | A crypto-asset designed to hold a stable value against a currency or other assets; legal definitions vary by jurisdiction. |
| OFAC SDN list | The US Treasury OFAC list of sanctioned persons whose assets are blocked; it can include crypto addresses. |
| VASP | FATF term for a business that exchanges, transfers or holds virtual assets for others; called CASP in the EU and PSAV in Argentina and Brazil. |
| CBDC | Digital money issued by a central bank as its own direct liability, for banks only (wholesale) or for the public (retail). |
| Blacklist (issuer blacklist) | The on-chain list of addresses an issuer's contract blocks from moving its stablecoin. |
| Travel Rule | The FATF rule that service providers send sender and recipient details along with crypto and stablecoin transfers. |
| Fiat-backed stablecoin | A stablecoin that references a fiat currency and is backed by reserve assets such as deposits and short-term government debt. |
| Crypto-collateralised stablecoin | A stablecoin created against crypto-asset collateral locked in a protocol, for example GHO, which Aave describes as over-collateralised. |
| Synthetic dollar (delta-neutral) | A dollar-tracking token backed by spot crypto assets hedged with short derivatives so that price moves offset; Ethena's USDe is an example. |
| Issuer | The entity that creates a stablecoin and is responsible for redeeming it; laws limit who may act as one. |
| Reserve / reserve assets | The assets an issuer holds to back outstanding stablecoins; laws set how much, of what kind, and how they are disclosed. |
| Reserve attestation | An independent accountant's opinion on an issuer's reserve figures at specific dates; standards and frequency differ by issuer and law. |
| Proof of reserves | A custodian's snapshot check (Kraken's uses a Merkle tree) that its on-chain holdings cover client balances; not a full audit. |
| Redemption | Returning stablecoins to the issuer for the reference currency; who may redeem, how fast and at what fee depends on law and terms. |
| Peg / depeg | The peg is the value a stablecoin targets, such as one unit of a currency; a depeg is when its market price moves away. |
| Mint | Creating new stablecoin units on-chain, which increases total supply; done by the issuer's authorised minter or, in some protocols, by users. |
| Burn | Removing stablecoin units from circulation, which lowers total supply; in the USDC and USDT contracts only the issuer's minter or owner role can do it. |
| Net issuance | Tokens minted minus tokens burned in a period; supply can also fall in other ways, e.g. when an issuer destroys a blacklisted balance. |
| Freeze (address freeze) | An issuer blocking a specific address so its stablecoins cannot be moved; the balance stays on the address. |
| Unfreeze | The issuer removing an address from its blacklist so that the address can move its stablecoins again. |
| Seizure | Taking frozen stablecoin value away from the holder, for example on an authority's order, or under the issuer's terms (e.g. destroying a blacklisted balance). |
| Sanctions exposure | Working definition: how closely an address or flow of funds is linked to sanctioned persons or blocked property. |
| Settlement / settled volume | Working definition: the total value of stablecoin transfers completed in a period; the figure depends on which transfers are counted. |
| Organic volume | In the Stablecoin Scanner's method: settled stablecoin volume between parties, excluding transfers that touch exchanges, bridges or routers. |
| Finality | Working definition: the point after which a recorded blockchain transfer can no longer be reversed or rewritten. |
| Token standard (ERC-20, TRC-20, SPL) | Working definition: a shared contract interface, such as ERC-20 or TRC-20, that wallets and exchanges use to handle tokens. |
| Wrong network transfer | Working definition: sending a stablecoin on a network or token version the recipient does not support; recovery may be impossible. |
| Bridged stablecoin (USDC.e) | Working definition: a stablecoin copy on another chain, backed by originals locked in a contract, not issued by the issuer. |
| Omnichain token (USDT0) | Working definition: a token moving across blockchains with one supply; USDT0 locks USDT on Ethereum and mints 1:1 elsewhere. |
| Bridge / bridge crossing | A system that moves tokens or messages between blockchains, e.g. by lock-and-mint, burn-and-mint or atomic swaps. |
| Address poisoning | A scam that plants a lookalike address in a wallet's history so the owner later copies it and sends funds to the attacker. |
| Token approval (allowance) | Working definition: a permission letting another address spend a holder's tokens up to a set allowance. |
| Wallet label / attribution | In the Stablecoin Scanner's method: a community-sourced name for an address with recorded provenance; not verified identity. |
| Risk tier | In the Stablecoin Scanner's method: a six-word heuristic rating of an address, from severe to none, or not assessed. |
| Counterparty graph | In the Stablecoin Scanner's method: a star-shaped chart of the addresses one address exchanged a stablecoin with. |
| Left-censored date | In the Stablecoin Scanner's method: the date its observed history starts; silence before it proves nothing. |
| Coverage and freshness | Working definition: in the Stablecoin Scanner's method, which chains and tokens are indexed, and how up to date each figure is. |
| Exchange netflow | Working definition: in the Stablecoin Scanner's method, the net of stablecoins entering and leaving an exchange's known addresses over a period. |
| Yield-bearing stablecoin | Working definition: a stablecoin product that pays holders a return; the GENIUS Act and MiCA bar issuer-paid interest on some tokens. |
| Savings rate (Sky Savings Rate) | Working definition: a variable return a stablecoin protocol pays on deposits; Sky's is funded from protocol surplus. |
| Tokenised money-market fund | Working definition: money market fund shares issued as blockchain tokens; the BIS says they offer returns at money market rates. |
| Euro stablecoin (EMT) | Working definition: a stablecoin referencing the euro; under MiCA it is an e-money token, such as Circle's EURC. |
| E-money token (EMT, MiCA) | MiCA's category for a crypto-asset referencing one official currency, issued and redeemable at par by a credit or e-money institution. |
| Asset-referenced token (ART, MiCA) | MiCA's category for a crypto-asset, other than an e-money token, that references another value, right or combination, including official currencies. |
| CASP (MiCA) | MiCA's term for a firm authorised to provide crypto-asset services such as custody, trading platforms or exchange in the EU. |
| Payment stablecoin (GENIUS Act) | The GENIUS Act's term for a digital asset used for payments that its issuer must redeem for a fixed monetary amount. |
| Custody (custodial / self-custody) | Holding crypto-assets or their private keys for someone else; self-custody means the owner controls the keys. |
| Gas fee (such as TRX or ETH) | Working definition: the network fee for a transaction, paid in the chain's native coin, such as ETH on Ethereum or TRX on TRON. |
| Deposit insurance | Working definition: insurance of bank deposits up to a limit; the FDIC says it does not cover crypto assets. |
| Issuer failure / insolvency | Working definition: a stablecoin issuer unable to meet its obligations; US and EU law set holder priority and redemption plans. |
| Legacy Mesh | USDT0's cross-chain route connecting native USDT on Ethereum, Tron, TON, Solana and Celo with USDT0 networks via a hub. |