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Digital assets and currencies

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

Trading basics

Artificial intelligence in marketing

Artificial intelligence marketing (AI marketing) is a form of marketing that uses artificial intelligence concepts and models such as machine learning, natural language processing, and computer vision to achieve marketing goals. The main difference between AI marketing and traditional forms of marketing resides in the reasoning, which is performed through a computer algorithm rather than

Trading basics

Asset

In financial accounting, an asset is any resource owned or controlled by a business or an economic entity. It is anything (tangible or intangible) that can be used to produce positive economic value. Assets represent the ownership of value that can be converted into cash (although cash itself is also considered an asset).

Fiat currencies

Barnett critique

The Barnett critique, named for the work of William A. Barnett in monetary economics, argues that internal inconsistency between the aggregation theory used to produce monetary aggregates and the economic theory used to produce the models within which the aggregates are used are responsible for the appearance of unstable demand and supply for money. The Barnett critique has produced a lo

Securities & exchanges

Callable bull/bear contract

A callable bull/bear contract, or CBBC in short form, is a derivative financial instrument that provides investors with a leveraged investment in underlying assets, which can be a single stock, or an index. CBBC is usually issued by third parties, mostly investment banks, but neither by stock exchanges nor by asset owners. It was first introduced in Europe and Australia in 2001, and it i

Trading basics

Capital market imperfections

Credit market imperfections (known academically as capital market imperfections) are limitations that reduce the range of financial contracts that can be signed or honored. There are three main theoretical drivers of imperfection: First, lenders do not have full information about the borrower, whether they have the capacity to pay back their debt and/or whether they are willing to pay (a

Finance

Capital Requirements Directives

The Capital Requirements Directives (CRD) for the financial services industry have introduced a supervisory framework in the European Union which reflects the Basel II and Basel III rules on capital measurement and capital standards.

Finance

Capitalization rate

Capitalization rate (or "cap rate") is a real estate valuation measure used to compare different real estate investments. Although there are many variations, the cap rate is generally calculated as the ratio between the annual rental income produced by a real estate asset to its current market value. Most variations depend on the definition of the annual rental income and whether it is

Payments & settlement

Central Electronic System of Payments

The Central Electronic System of Payments (CESOP) regime is an automatic exchange of information regime being introduced in the European Union from 1 January 2024. The rules were introduced by Council Directive 2020/284, amending the EU's Value-added tax Directive.

Fiat currencies

Chartalism

Chartalism is a heterodox theory in macroeconomics that views money as a pure creation of the state, introduced to control and organize economic activity rather than arising from barter or debt.

Finance

Cornering the market

In competition law, cornering the market consists of obtaining sufficient control of a particular stock, commodity, human capital or other asset in an attempt to reduce competition.

Trading basics

Crypto-to-Crypto Trading: Trading Pairs and Order Basics

Crypto-to-crypto trading generally refers to the buying and selling between different crypto assets. This article introduces positioning, mechanisms, usage verification, and common misconceptions.

Stablecoins

DAI and the Sky Stablecoin System

DAI is a US dollar-pegged stablecoin associated with the Maker system, later linked to the development of the Sky ecosystem. This article introduces its positioning, mechanism, usage verification, and common misconceptions.

Fiat currencies

Debasement

A debasement of coinage is the practice of lowering the intrinsic value of coins, especially when used in connection with commodity money, such as gold or silver coins, while continuing to circulate them at face value. A coin is said to be debased if the quantity of gold, silver, copper or nickel in the coin is reduced.

Assets

Decentralized finance

Decentralized finance (often stylized as DeFi) provides financial instruments and services through smart contracts on a programmable, permissionless blockchain. This approach reduces the need for intermediaries such as brokerages, exchanges, or banks. DeFi platforms enable users to lend or borrow funds, speculate on asset price movements using derivatives, trade cryptocurrencies, insure

Assets

Equihash

Equihash is a memory-hard Proof-of-work algorithm introduced by the University of Luxembourg's Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) at the 2016 Network and Distributed System Security Symposium. The algorithm is based on a generalization of the Birthday problem which finds colliding hash values. It has severe time-space trade-offs but concedes vulnerability

Assets

Ethereum and ETH

Ethereum is a public blockchain that runs smart contracts, and ETH (Ether) is its native asset. This article introduces its positioning, mechanisms, verification guidelines, and common misconceptions.

Trading basics

Ettore Conti, Count of Verampio

Ettore Conti, Count of Verampio OML, OMRI, OCI (1871–1972, Milan, Kingdom of Italy) was an Italian senator, industrialist, and aristocrat.

Fiat currencies

Euro EUR: Valuation and Exchange Basics

The international currency code for the Euro is EUR, with the symbol €. This article introduces its positioning, mechanism, usage verification, and common misconceptions.

Trading basics

Exchange: Exchange Rates, Fees, and Received Amounts

An exchange is the process of acquiring one asset using another. This article introduces definition, mechanics, usage verification, and common misconceptions.

Fiat currencies

Financial repression

Financial repression refers to government implementation of policies to channel domestic funds to the public sector that in a deregulated market environment would go elsewhere. These policies are used to reduce the government's debt-to-GDP ratio.

Trading basics

Financial sector development

Financial sector development in developing countries and emerging markets is part of the private sector development strategy to stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty.

Finance

Food speculation

Food speculation refers to the buying and selling of futures contracts or other commodity derivatives by traders with the aim of profiting from changes in food prices. Food speculation can be both positive and negative for food producers and buyers. It is betting on food prices in financial markets.

Payments & settlement

Four Corners Model for Payment Security

The Four Corners model, often referred to as the Four Party Scheme is the most used card scheme in card payment systems worldwide. This model was introduced in the 1990s. It is a user-friendly card payment system based on an interbank clearing system and economic model established on multilateral interchange fees (MIF) paid between banks or other payment institutions.

Finance

FX Fighter Kurumi-chan

FX Fighter Kurumi-chan (Japanese: FX戦士くるみちゃん, Hepburn: FX Senshi Kurumi-chan) is a Japanese manga series written by Demunyan and illustrated by Daisuki Tansan. It was originally published as a web comic on Demunyan's personal website, before beginning serialization in Media Factory's Monthly Comic Flapper magazine in February 2021. An anime television series adaptation produced by Passio

Trading basics

General game playing

General game playing (GGP) is the design of artificial intelligence programs to be able to play more than one game successfully. For many games like chess, computers are programmed to play these games using a specially designed algorithm, which cannot be transferred to another context. For instance, a chess-playing computer program cannot play checkers. General game playing is considered

Payments & settlement

GovPay

GovPay is a digital payment platform launched by the Government of Sri Lanka to streamline and modernise payment processes for government services. Officially introduced on 7 February 2025, under the patronage of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, GovPay represents a significant step toward the digitalization of public services in Sri Lanka. This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of

Trading basics

Hispanic Television Summit

The Hispanic Television Summit is an annual conference for those in the business of television and video for Hispanic viewers in the United States, and worldwide. The Hispanic Television Summit is presented by two business publications for the television industry, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel News, and is produced by Joe Schramm and Rafael Eli (deceased, 2020) of Schramm Market

Finance

Indulgence

In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence (Latin: indulgentia, from indulgeo, 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins". The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is du

Finance

Internationalization of the renminbi

Since the late 2000s, the People's Republic of China (PRC) has sought to internationalize its official currency, the renminbi (RMB) or Chinese yuan (CNY). This initiative aims to reduce dependence on the United States dollar and enhance China's influence in the global financial system. Key strategies have included promoting the use of the yuan in international trade invoicing, cross-bord

Finance

Kagi chart

The Kagi chart (Japanese: かぎ足, romanized: kagiashi) is a chart used for tracking price movements and to make decisions on purchasing stock. It differs from traditional stock charts such as the Candlestick chart by being mostly independent of time. This feature aids in producing a chart that reduces random noise.

Trading basics

Klöckner & Co

Klöckner & Co SE (also known as Klöckner, KlöCo, or KCO) is a producer-independent processor of steel and metal products. With a network of 110 warehousing and processing locations, Klöckner & Co supplies over 60,000 customers, mainly in Europe and North America.

Payments & settlement

LankaQR

LankaQR, stylised in all caps as LANKAQR, is a national QR code payment system in Sri Lanka, initiated by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) in collaboration with LankaClear (Pvt) Ltd and licensed financial institutions. The standard was introduced on 12 October 2018 and formally launched on 11 March 2019, aiming to promote a cashless society, enhance financial inclusion, and reduce re

Trading basics

Leveraged buyout

A leveraged buyout (LBO) is one company's acquisition of another company using a significant amount of borrowed money (leverage) to meet the cost of acquisition. The assets of the company being acquired are often used as collateral for the loans, along with the assets of the acquiring company. The use of debt, which normally has a lower cost of capital than equity, serves to reduce the o

Trading basics

LME Zinc

LME Zinc is a group of spot, forward, and futures contracts traded on the London Metal Exchange (LME) for the delivery of zinc. The zinc, which is of 99.9% purity, can be used for pre-sale handling and physical delivery of sales or purchases, and investments. Producers, semi-fabricators, consumers, recyclers, and merchants can use zinc futures contracts to hedge zinc price risks and to r

Finance

Market basket

A market basket or commodity bundle is a fixed list of items, in given proportions. Its most common use is to track the progress of inflation in an economy or specific market. That is, to measure the changes in the value of money over time. A market basket is also used with the theory of purchasing price parity to measure the value of money in different places.

Finance

Middle income trap

In development economics, the middle income trap is a situation where a country has developed until GDP per capita has reached a middle level of income, but the country does not develop further and does not attain high income country status. The term was introduced by the World Bank in 2007 who defined it as the "middle-income range" countries with gross national product per capita that

Finance

Mischler Financial Group

Mischler Financial Group is the American boutique investment bank and brokerage that became the financial industry's first firm owned and operated by Service-Disabled Veterans.

Fiat currencies

Money burning

Money burning or burning money is the purposeful act of destroying money. In the prototypical example, banknotes are destroyed by setting them on fire. Burning money decreases the wealth of the owner without directly enriching any particular party. It also reduces the money supply and (very slightly) slows down the inflation rate.

Payments & settlement

National Automated Clearing House

National Automated Clearing House, introduced by National Payments Corporation of India, is a centralised clearing service that aims at providing interbank high volume, low value transactions that are repetitive and periodic in nature. Offering credit and debit service to corporates, banks, and financial institutions, the service, aimed at integrating all regional ECS into one National

Fiat currencies

Nium

Nium is a Singapore-headquartered cross-border payments company. Initially founded by Prajit Nanu and Michael Bermingham, and launched as a consumer-remittance platform Instarem in 2014. In 2016, the company introduced its B2B payments platform and rebranded as Nium in 2019, subsequently elevating Pratik Gandhi to co-founder in 2021. However, Gandhi left Nium in October 2023, around the

Payments & settlement

RioCard

The RioCard (Bilhete Único) is a smartcard system used in the transport system of Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil. The card is contactless and uses MIFARE technology. It is a form of electronic payment produced and distributed by the Fetranspor company, in cooperation with Itaú bank. Its installation was seen as strengthening Brazil's connection with the Open Standard for Public Transport

Trading basics

S&P 500 futures

S&P 500 futures are financial futures which allow an investor to hedge with or speculate on the future value of various components of the S&P 500 Index market index. S&P 500 futures contracts were first introduced by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange in 1982. The CME added the e-mini option in 1997. The bundle of stocks in the S&P 500 is, per the name, composed of stocks of 500 large compa

Securities & exchanges

Securities fraud

Securities fraud, also known as stock fraud and investment fraud, is a deceptive practice in the stock or commodities markets that induces investors to make purchase or sale decisions on the basis of false information. The setups are generally made to result in monetary gain for the deceivers, and generally result in unfair monetary losses for the investors. They are generally violating

Securities & exchanges

Securities research

Securities research is a discipline within the financial services industry about securities. Securities research professionals are known most generally as "analysts", "research analysts", or "securities analysts"; all the foregoing terms are synonymous. Research analysts produce research reports and typically issue a recommendation: buy ("overweight"), hold, or sell ("underweight"); see

Finance

Set-off (law)

In law, set-off or netting is a legal technique applied between persons or businesses with mutual rights and liabilities, replacing gross positions with net positions. It permits the rights to be used to discharge the liabilities where cross claims exist between a plaintiff and a respondent, the result being that the gross claims of mutual debt produce a single net claim. The net claim i

Payments & settlement

Speedpass

Speedpass was a keychain radio-frequency identification (RFID) device introduced in 1997 by Mobil (which merged with Exxon to become ExxonMobil in 1999) for electronic payment. It was originally developed by Verifone. By 2004, more than seven million people possessed Speedpass tags, which could be used at approximately 10,000 Exxon, Mobil and Esso gas stations worldwide.

Trading basics

Stock market simulator

A stock market simulator is computer software that reproduces behavior and features of a stock market, so that a user may practice trading stocks without financial risk. Paper trading, sometimes also called "virtual stock trading", is a simulated trading process in which would-be investors can practice investing without committing money.

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

Fiat currencies

The Great Debasement

The Great Debasement (1544–1551) was a currency debasement policy introduced in 1544 England under the order of Henry VIII which saw the amount of precious metal in gold and silver coins reduced and in some cases replaced entirely with cheaper base metals such as copper. Overspending by Henry VIII to pay for his lavish lifestyle and to fund foreign wars with France and Scotland are cited

Finance

Timeline of artificial intelligence risks in global finance

The following article is a broad timeline of the course of events related to artificial intelligence risks in global finance.

Finance

Tobin's q

Tobin's q (or the q ratio, and Marris's v), is the ratio between a physical asset's market value and its replacement cost. It was first introduced by Robin Marris as a firm-level microeconomic variable in his 1964 book The Economic Theory of Managerial Capitalism, and was shortly afterwards further analysed by Richard Kahn in early drafts of his paper Notes on the Rate of Interest and th

Networks

TRON Network and TRC20

TRON is a blockchain network supporting accounts, transactions, and smart contracts. TRX is its native asset, and TRC20 is a common contract token standard. This article introduces its positioning, mechanisms, verification steps, and common misconceptions.

Finance

Tuttle Twins

Tuttle Twins is an American educational animated series distributed by Angel Studios and produced by Tuttle Twins Show LLC, based on the book series of the same name by Connor Boyack. First released on June 30, 2021, the series follows twin siblings Ethan and Emily Tuttle, who travel through space and time with their grandmother Gabby to meet historical figures and learn lessons about to

Finance

Twin crises

In economics, twin crises, also called a balance of payments crisis, are simultaneous crises in banking and currency. The term was introduced in the late 1990s by economists Graciela Kaminsky and Carmen Reinhart after several such crises worldwide.

Stablecoins

USD1: Brand, Token, and Reserve Information

USD1 is a US dollar stablecoin associated with the World Liberty Financial brand. This article introduces its positioning, mechanism, verification checklist, and common misconceptions.

Stablecoins

USDC: Native Issuance and Bridged Versions

USDC is a US dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle. This article introduces its positioning, mechanism, usage checklist, and common misconceptions.

Stablecoins

USDT: Tether and Network Selection

USDT is a US dollar-denominated stablecoin issued by Tether, designed to maintain a close value relationship with the US dollar. This article introduces its positioning, mechanism, verification checklist, and common misconceptions.

Fiat currencies

Wage unit

The wage unit is a unit of measurement for monetary quantities introduced by Keynes in his 1936 book The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (General Theory). A value expressed in wage units is equal to its price in money units divided by the wage (in money units) of a man-hour of labour.

Securities & exchanges

Weather derivative

Weather derivatives are financial instruments that can be used by organizations or individuals as part of a risk management strategy to reduce risk associated with adverse or unexpected weather conditions. Weather derivatives are index-based instruments that usually use observed weather data at a weather station to create an index on which a payout can be based. This index could be total

Payments & settlement

Wero

Wero is a European digital wallet and instant account-to-account payment service developed by the European Payments Initiative (EPI). It was launched in Germany on 2 July 2024, followed by France and Belgium later that year. Wero is currently available in Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. Leading Austrian banks are planning to introduce the service.