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Digital assets and currencies

Understand assets, networks and trading mechanics with sources you can check.

Payments & settlement

Balance of payments

In international economics, the balance of payments (also known as balance of international payments and abbreviated BOP or BoP) of a country is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time (e.g., a quarter or a year) and the outflow of money to the rest of the world. These financial transactions are made by individuals, firms and government b

Payments & settlement

Balance of trade

Balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports of goods over a certain time period. Sometimes, trade in services is also included in the balance of trade but the official IMF definition only considers goods. The balance of trade measures a flow variable of exports and imports over a given period of time. The notion of the balance of trade

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 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

Payments & settlement

Current account (balance of payments)

In macroeconomics and international finance, a country's current account records the value of exports and imports of both goods and services and international transfers of capital. It is one of the two components of the balance of payments, the other being the capital account (also known as the financial account). Current account measures the nation's earnings and spendings abroad and it

Fiat currencies

Foreign exchange reserves

Foreign exchange reserves (also called forex reserves or FX reserves) are cash and other reserve assets such as gold and silver held by a central bank or other monetary authority that are primarily available to balance payments of the country, influence the foreign exchange rate of its currency, and to maintain confidence in financial markets. Reserves are held in one or more reserve cur

Trading basics

G20 developing nations

The G20 developing nations (and, occasionally, the G21, G23 or G20+) is a bloc of developing nations established on 20 August 2003. Distinct and separate from the G20 major economies, the group emerged at the 5th Ministerial WTO conference, held in Cancún, Mexico, from 10 September to 14 September 2003. The group accounted for 60% of the world's population, 70% of its farmers and 26% of

Finance

Group of Ten (IMF)

The Group of Ten (G10 or G-10) refers to the group of 11 countries that agreed to participate in the General Arrangements to Borrow (GAB), an agreement to provide the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with additional funds to increase its lending ability.

Finance

International financial institutions

An international financial institution (IFI) is a financial institution that has been established (or chartered) by more than one country, and hence is subject to international law. Its owners or shareholders are generally national governments, although other international institutions and other organizations occasionally figure as shareholders. The most prominent IFIs are creations of m

Trading basics

Multilateral Agreement on Investment

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) was a draft agreement negotiated in secret between members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) between 1995 and 1998. It sought to establish a new body of universal investment laws that would grant corporations unconditional rights to engage in financial operations around the world, without any regard to nati

Finance

Net capital outflow

Net capital outflow (NCO) is the net flow of funds being invested abroad by a country during a certain period of time (usually a year). A positive NCO means that the country invests outside more than the world invests in it. NCO is one of two major ways of characterizing the nature of a country's financial and economic interaction with the other parts of the world (the other being the ba

Trading basics

Salvadoran colón

The colón is the currency of El Salvador, used de jure since 1892. In 2001 it was replaced de facto by the U.S. dollar during the presidency of Francisco Flores. The colón was subdivided into 100 centavos and its ISO 4217 code is SVC, which didn't deprecate as a historical code. The plural is "colones" in Spanish and the currency was named after Christopher Columbus, known as Cristóbal C

Trading basics

Shark fin trading in Costa Rica

Shark fin trading in Costa Rica, or shark finning, is an illegal practice in the country. It poses a serious threat to shark populations besides the organized crime involvement in the practice within Costa Rica. The trade in Costa Rica is vigorously controlled by the Taiwanese mafia because of the high value of shark fins in restaurants in the Pacific Rim countries such as Taiwan, Hong K

Trading basics

Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute

The Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute (also SWF Institute, or simply SWFI) is an American corporation that analyzes public asset owners such as sovereign wealth funds and other long-term governmental investors. Initially focused solely on sovereign wealth funds, the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute has branched out to cover all types of public institutional investors. The institute sells i

Banking

SUCRE

The SUCRE ([ˈsukɾe]; Spanish: Sistema Unitario de Compensación Regional, "Unified System for Regional Compensation") was a regional currency proposed for commercial exchanges between members of the regional trade bloc Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA), which was created as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). The SUCRE was intended to replace the

Trading basics

Trillion dollar club (macroeconomics)

The Trillion dollar club is an unofficial classification of the world's major economies with a gross domestic product (nominal GDP) of more than US$1 trillion per year. As of 2025, it included 21 countries. This does not include purchasing power parity, which increases the GDP of many countries with an undervalued currency, which are usually poorer countries.

Trading basics

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade. Established on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, it succeeded the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1948. As the world's largest international economic organization, the WTO has 166 members, representing over