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Digital assets and currencies

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Banking

Banking in Canada

The banking sector of Canada is a large component of the nation's private sector and the broader Canadian economy. It is dominated by a small number of large banks, with the six largest combining for 93% of the banking assets. The two largest, the Royal Bank of Canada and the Toronto Dominion Bank are among the world's 25 largest banks. It has been considered to be one of the safest and

Banking

Banking in Cuba

This article discusses banking in Cuba and gives an overview of the recent past. For details on the Cuban economy in general, see economy of Cuba.

Banking

Banking in Egypt

Banking in Egypt is regulated by the Central Bank of Egypt. Egypt’s banking sector has undergone major reforms since the 1990s, resulting in a liberalized and modernized system aligned with international standards. Financial inclusion has expanded, with 74.8% of Egyptians aged 15 and above using financial accounts, reaching 52 million users by 2024. Usage spans banks, Egypt Post, mobile

Banking

Banking in Guyana

Banking in Guyana follows the country's tumultuous economics history, from formal introduction under British rule, the socialist-oriented nationalization of banks at independence, to IMF sponsored open-market initiatives. The banking industry faces increased pressure to meet global standards domestically, as well as attract international investors, and serve the large number of diaspora

Banking

Banking in New Zealand

The Banking sector in New Zealand dates back to the early days of European settlement in the country. Over the years, the banking industry has played a vital role in supporting economic growth and development, providing financial services to individuals, businesses, and the government. This article explores the significant milestones and transformations in the history of the New Zealand

Banking

Banking in Nicaragua

Banking in Nicaragua refers to its financial system, which includes private and state-owned banks, microfinance institutions, financial cooperatives, and insurance providers. All institutions are regulated by the Superintendency of Banks and Other Financial Institutions (SIBOIF), which makes sure there compliance with domestic laws and international standards. The Nicaraguan banking sect

Banking

Banking in Panama

Panama has a substantial financial services sector. The sector grew up providing trade finance for trade passing through the Panama Canal, and later evolved into money laundering for the drug trade under Manuel Noriega.

Banking

Banking in South Sudan

Established by the Bank of South Sudan Act of 2011, the Central Bank of South Sudan is statutorily mandated to regulate the operations of all financial institutions in the country, including commercial banks. The Central Bank fulfills this mandate by issuing prudential guidelines and regulations as provided for under the Act. In theory, the licensed commercial banks are obligated to oper

Banking

Banking in Sudan

Banking in Sudan covers the history, development and structure of banking in the Sudan. From the inheritance of the banking system from the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan to the establishment of the Sudan central bank in 1959 and development of Islamic banking in the mid 1970s.

Banking

Banking in Tunisia

Banking in Tunisia is a service industry comprising 23 domestic banks of which, are three state owned banks.

Trading basics

Bitcoin and politics

Bitcoin and politics influence each other in several ways. Governments of several countries use Bitcoin in various capacities, and some politicians use Bitcoin in their electoral programs.

Trading basics

Bitcoin buried in Newport landfill

In 2013, Welsh computer engineer James Howells mistakenly disposed of a laptop hard drive containing the private key for 8,000 Bitcoin in the Docksway landfill in Newport, Wales. Howells subsequently assembled a team of specialists and secured funding to excavate the site, but Newport City Council refused permission, citing galvanic corrosion of the device and health concerns of city re

Trading basics

Bitcoin City

Bitcoin City is a planned smart city project in La Unión, El Salvador. The planned city is intended to be a tax haven, and to use geothermal energy to power Bitcoin mining. The feasibility of its reliance on both geothermal energy and Bitcoin have been the subject of criticism, alongside concerns regarding delays in the project's financing and construction.

Trading basics

Bitcoin in El Salvador

El Salvador was the first country in the world to use bitcoin as legal tender, after it was adopted as such by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador in 2021. It has been promoted by Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, who claimed that it would improve the economy by making banking easier for Salvadorans, and that it would encourage foreign investment. In 2022, more Salvadorians

Trading basics

Bitcoin Law

The Bitcoin Law (Spanish: Ley Bitcoin, pronounced [ˈlej biðˈkojn]) was passed by the Legislative Assembly of El Salvador on 8 June 2021, giving the cryptocurrency bitcoin the status of legal tender within El Salvador after 7 September 2021. It was proposed by President Nayib Bukele. The text of the law stated that "the purpose of this law is to regulate bitcoin as unrestricted legal tend

Trading basics

Bitcoin protocol

The bitcoin protocol is the set of rules that govern the functioning of bitcoin. Its key components and principles are: a peer-to-peer decentralized network with no central oversight; the blockchain technology, a public ledger that records all bitcoin transactions; mining and proof of work, the process to create new bitcoins and verify transactions; and cryptographic security.

Fiat currencies

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision

Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV) is a cryptocurrency that is a hard fork of Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Satoshi Vision was created in November 2018 by a group of individuals led by Craig Steven Wright, who has claimed since 2015 to be Satoshi Nakamoto, the creator of the original bitcoin.

Trading basics

Bitcoin scalability

Bitcoin scalability refers to the capability of the Bitcoin network to handle large amounts of transaction data on its platform. Records (known as blocks) in the Bitcoin blockchain are limited in size and frequency to prioritize security and decentralization by keeping the cost of running a Bitcoin node affordable. With an average block creation time of 10 minutes and a block size limit

Payments & settlement

BitPay

BitPay is a cryptocurrency payment service provider headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. It was founded in May 2011 by Tony Gallippi and Stephen Pair. BitPay provides crypto payment processing services for merchants and a cryptocurrency wallet available on mobile and desktop.

Finance

Black–Derman–Toy model

In mathematical finance, the Black–Derman–Toy model (BDT) is a popular short-rate model used in the pricing of bond options, swaptions and other interest rate derivatives; see Lattice model (finance) § Interest rate derivatives. It is a one-factor model; that is, a single stochastic factor—the short rate—determines the future evolution of all interest rates. It was the first model to com

Trading basics

Central African CFA franc

The Central African CFA franc (French: franc CFA or simply franc; ISO code: XAF; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the currency used in six independent states in Central Africa: Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. These six countries had a combined population of 55.2 million in 2020, and their total GDP exceeded US$100 billion (as o

Trading basics

CFA franc

CFA franc (French: franc CFA, [fʁɑ̃ seɛfɑ]) is the name of two currencies used by 227 million people (as of 2026) in fourteen African countries:

Trading basics

CFP franc

The CFP franc (French: Franc pacifique, called the franc in everyday use) is the currency used in the French overseas collectivities (French: collectivités d'outre-mer, or COM) of French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna. The initials CFP originally stood for colonies françaises du Pacifique (lit. 'French colonies of the Pacific') but since 2022 is officially Collectivités

Securities & exchanges

Chan–Karolyi–Longstaff–Sanders process

In mathematics, the Chan–Karolyi–Longstaff–Sanders process (abbreviated as CKLS process) is a stochastic process with applications to finance. In particular it has been used to model the term structure of interest rates. The CKLS process can also be viewed as a generalization of the Ornstein–Uhlenbeck process. It is named after K. C. Chan, G. Andrew Karolyi, Francis A. Longstaff, and Ant

Securities & exchanges

Constant elasticity of variance model

In mathematical finance, the constant elasticity of variance model (CEV) is a stochastic volatility model, although technically it would be classed more precisely as a local volatility model, that attempts to capture stochastic volatility and the leverage effect. The model is widely used by practitioners in the financial industry, especially for modelling equities and commodities. It was

Trading basics

Cryptocurrency ATM

A cryptocurrency ATM (automated teller machine) or Bitcoin ATM is a kiosk that allows a person to purchase Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies by using cash or debit card. Some Bitcoin ATMs offer bidirectional functionality, enabling both the purchase of Bitcoin and the sale of Bitcoin for cash. In some cases, Bitcoin ATM providers require users to have an existing account to transact on

Trading basics

Dartford Crossing

The Dartford–Thurrock River Crossing, commonly known as the Dartford Crossing and until 1991 the Dartford Tunnel, is a major road crossing of the River Thames in England, carrying the A282 road between Dartford in Kent in the south and Thurrock in Essex in the north.

Assets

Digital Currency Group

Digital Currency Group Inc. (DCG) is an American investment company focusing on the digital currency market and decentralized technologies. It is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut. The subsidiaries include Grayscale Investments, Yuma, Foundry, Luno, and Fortitude Mining. It also formerly owned the now-inactive Genesis Global Holdco and CoinDesk.

Trading basics

Eastern Caribbean dollar

The Eastern Caribbean dollar (symbol: $ or EC$; code: XCD) is the currency of all seven full members and one associate member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The successor to the British West Indies dollar, it has been issued since 1965.

Fiat currencies

Economics of bitcoin

Bitcoin was designed by its pseudonymous inventor, Satoshi Nakamoto, to work as a currency, but its status as a currency is disputed. Economists define money as a store of value, a medium of exchange and a unit of account, and agree that bitcoin does not currently meet all these criteria.

Trading basics

El Zonte

El Zonte is a town in La Libertad Department in El Salvador. A popular tourist destination, El Zonte has been described as a "world surfing mecca". Playa El Zonte (English: El Zonte Beach; nicknamed Bitcoin Beach) became one of the first locales in El Salvador to accept bitcoin as a payment method, and inspired the country's adoption of bitcoin as a legal tender from 2021 until 2025.

Trading basics

Environmental impact of bitcoin

The environmental impact of bitcoin has been characterized in the literature as significant, particularly due to its energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, and electronic waste. Bitcoin mining, the process by which bitcoins are created and transactions are finalized, is energy-consuming due to it requiring a large amount of compute and results in carbon emissions. According to the 2025 Ca

Trading basics

EZ TAG

EZ TAG is an electronic toll collection system in Houston, Texas, United States, that allows motorists to pay tolls without stopping at toll booths. Motorists with the tags are allowed to use lanes reserved exclusively for them on all Harris County Toll Road Authority (HCTRA) roads. As of late 2003, the EZ TAG can also be used on all lanes of tolled roadways in Texas that accommodate el

Finance

Financial Action Task Force blacklist

The Financial Action Task Force blacklist (often abbreviated to FATF blacklist, and officially known as the "Call for action") is a blacklist maintained by the Financial Action Task Force.

Finance

Financial Guard (Romania)

The Financial Guard (Romanian: Garda Financiară) was the control agency, subordinated to the National Agency for Fiscal Administration (ANAF), with a mandate to control the financial, economic and customs domains to prevent and sanction the tax evasion and tax-related fraud according to the legislation in effect. The institution was headed by a civil servant, having the mandate of the C

Fiat currencies

Foreign exchange controls

Foreign exchange controls are various forms of controls imposed by a government on the purchase/sale of foreign currencies by residents, on the purchase/sale of local currency by nonresidents, or the transfers of any currency across national borders. These controls allow countries to better manage their economies by controlling the inflow and outflow of currency, which may otherwise crea

Trading basics

French Polynesian franc

The franc is the currency of French Polynesia, part of the CFP franc since 1945 and issued by the Institut d'émission d'outre-mer (IEOM) in Paris. It is subdivided into 100 centimes, although centime denominations are no longer in circulation.

Assets

Gemini (cryptocurrency exchange)

Gemini Space Station Inc. (Gemini) is an American cryptocurrency exchange and custodian bank. It was founded in 2014 by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.

Finance

Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes

The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes was founded in 2000 and restructured in September 2009. It consists of OECD member countries as well as other jurisdictions that have agreed to implement tax related transparency and information exchange. The forum works under the auspices of the OECD and G20. Its mission is to "implement the international stan

Securities & exchanges

Heston model

In finance, the Heston model, named after Steven L. Heston, is a mathematical model that describes the evolution of the volatility of an underlying asset. It is a stochastic volatility model: such a model assumes that the volatility of the asset is not constant, nor even deterministic, but follows a random process.

Trading basics

History of bitcoin

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a digital asset that uses cryptography to control its creation and management rather than relying on central authorities. Originally designed as a medium of exchange, Bitcoin is now primarily regarded as a store of value. The history of bitcoin started with its invention and implementation by Satoshi Nakamoto, who integrated many existing ideas from the crypt

Finance

Jump diffusion

Jump diffusion is a stochastic process that involves jumps and diffusion. It is a type of Lévy process. It has important applications in magnetic reconnection, coronal mass ejections, condensed matter physics, and pattern theory and computational vision.

Finance

Korn–Kreer–Lenssen model

The Korn–Kreer–Lenssen model (KKL model) is a discrete trinomial model proposed in 1998 by Ralf Korn, Markus Kreer and Mark Lenssen to model illiquid securities and to value financial derivatives on these.

Trading basics

Lightning Network

The Lightning Network (LN) is a payment protocol built on the bitcoin blockchain. It is intended to enable fast transactions among participating nodes (independently run members of the network) and has been proposed as a solution to the bitcoin scalability problem.

Fiat currencies

List of countries by foreign exchange reserves

Foreign exchange reserves, also called Forex reserves, in a strict sense, are foreign-currency deposits held by nationals and monetary authorities. However, in popular usage and in the list below, it also includes gold reserves, special drawing rights (SDRs), and IMF reserve positions because this total figure (more accurately called "official reserves", "international reserves", or "off

Finance

Luke Dashjr

Luke Dashjr is an American software developer known for his long-standing role in the development of Bitcoin Core and for co-founding the Bitcoin mining pool Ocean.

Finance

Ministry of Public Finance

The Ministry of Public Finance (Spanish: Ministerio de Finanzas Públicas or MINFIN) is a government ministry of Guatemala in charge of fiscal policy and public finances.

Trading basics

New Caledonian franc

The franc is the currency of New Caledonia and Wallis and Futuna, part of the CFP franc since 1945 and issued by the Institut d'émission d'outre-mer (IEOM) in Paris. It is subdivided into 100 centimes, although centime denominations are no longer in circulation.

Networks

OpenTimestamps

OpenTimestamps (OTS) is an open-source project that aims to provide a standard format for blockchain timestamping.

Payments & settlement

Orange Money

Orange Money is the mobile phone based money transfer service of French telecom company Orange S.A., available in most of the group's affiliates in Africa. Its users can deposit money into an account linked to their mobile phone number, and then access a range of services, in particular transferring money domestically and internationally, paying bills and buying airtime top-up.

Fiat currencies

Ouroboros (protocol)

Ouroboros is a family of proof-of-stake consensus protocols used in the Cardano and Polkadot blockchains. It can run both permissionless and permissioned blockchains.

Fiat currencies

Petrocurrency

Petrocurrency (or petrodollar) is a word used with three distinct meanings, often confused:

Trading basics

Pineapple Fund

The Pineapple Fund was a philanthropic project by an anonymous individual which gave away 5,057 bitcoins to 60 charities. The amount was valued at $86 million in December 2017. Some of the themes supported were medical research, environmental conservation, human rights and psychedelic therapy.

Banking

Politically exposed person

A politically exposed person (PEP) in financial regulation is one who has been entrusted with a prominent public function. A PEP generally presents a higher risk for potential involvement in bribery and corruption by virtue of their position and the influence they may hold. The terms "politically exposed person" and senior foreign political figure are often used interchangeably, particul

Payments & settlement

Powa Technologies

Powa Technologies was a UK-based technology company, known for its commerce, mobile commerce and e-commerce services.

Securities & exchanges

Production sharing agreement

Production sharing agreements (PSAs) or production sharing contracts (PSCs) are a common type of contract signed between a government and a resource extraction company (or group of companies) concerning how much of the resource (usually oil) extracted from the country each will receive.

Assets

Regulation of cryptocurrency

The regulation of cryptocurrency constitutes regulatory, legal and political actions taken by various governments to regulate and oversee the development and adoption of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies. Restrictions on cryptocurrency have been motivated by concerns regarding financial stability, consumer protection, national security, and enforcing laws against mon

Finance

Robin Hood tax

The Robin Hood tax is a package of financial transaction taxes (FTT) proposed by a campaigning group of civil society non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Campaigners have suggested the tax could be implemented globally, regionally, or unilaterally by individual nations. Conceptually similar to the Tobin tax (which was proposed for foreign currency exchange only), it would affect a wid

Securities & exchanges

SABR volatility model

In mathematical finance, the SABR model is a stochastic volatility model, which attempts to capture the volatility smile in derivatives markets. The name stands for "stochastic alpha, beta, rho", referring to the parameters of the model. The SABR model is widely used by practitioners in the financial industry, especially in the interest rate derivative markets. It was developed by Patric

Trading basics

SegWit

Segregated Witness (SegWit), formally known as Segregated Witness (Consensus layer), is an implemented soft fork change in the transaction format of bitcoin.

Trading basics

Swing producer

A swing producer or swing supplier is a supplier or a close oligopolistic group of suppliers of any commodity, controlling its global deposits and possessing large spare production capacity. A swing producer is able to increase or decrease commodity supply at minimal additional internal cost, and thus able to influence prices and balance the markets, providing downside protection in the

Banking

The Mask (1994 film)

The Mask is a 1994 slapstick superhero American comedy film loosely based on the 1991 comic book series by John Arcudi and Doug Mahnke. Directed by Chuck Russell and written by Mike Werb, the film stars Jim Carrey in the title role, along with Peter Riegert, Peter Greene, Amy Yasbeck, Richard Jeni, and Cameron Diaz. The plot follows Stanley Ipkiss (Carrey), a hapless and timid bank telle

Networks

The Sandbox (company)

TSB Gaming (formerly known as Pixowl), doing business and commonly known as The Sandbox, is a metaverse platform developer. Founded in 2011, the company is now a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands. The company's chief product is The Sandbox, a 3D blockchain game platform released in 2021 as a sequel to the 2D world-building mobile game developed by the company in 2012.

Finance

Unbanked

The unbanked are adults who do not have their own bank accounts. Along with the underbanked, they may rely on alternative financial services for their financial needs, where these are available.

Assets

Zcash

Zcash is a privacy-focused cryptocurrency which features an encrypted ledger using zero-knowledge proofs.