Markets & investing

Bitcoin's price vocabulary is borrowed from equities and does not always transfer cleanly. Market cap is the clearest example. It is price multiplied by circulating supply, so it measures what the last trade implies rather than money that has ever gone in, and coins whose keys were lost a decade ago still count toward it.

Volatility is the number that should decide position size for anyone thinking about it properly. Bitcoin's has fallen as the market has grown, and it remains far above any major currency, which is what makes the difference between buying once and buying on a schedule material rather than cosmetic.

Spot ETFs changed who can hold bitcoin without holding keys. A share is exposure to the price through a brokerage account, with a management fee, no self custody, and no way to spend what you own. Whether that trade is worth making depends entirely on why you are buying, which is a question this glossary can frame and cannot answer for you.

Stablecoins are here because they are the on ramp inside most exchanges, the pair bitcoin usually trades against, and a distinct set of risks worth understanding on their own. Nothing in this section is investment advice, and none of it predicts a price.