Crypto glossary

Airdrop

A free distribution of a project's new token to wallets that used its product or met other rules, usually checked at a past snapshot date. Readers follow airdrops because the reward can be worth far more than the cost of qualifying. The limits are real: the pool is fixed and shared among everyone eligible, some projects never issue the token, and any site that asks for a fee or a recovery phrase is a scam.

See: What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs, How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything, Monad's MON airdrop ended in 2025, with 70% of tokens claimed

Allocation

The share of a token's supply set aside for a group, such as the community, team, investors or an airdrop pool. The word also means the amount a single wallet is told it can claim. Allocation sizes show who will hold tokens and who may sell them later. A large community allocation is not a promise of a large payout per wallet, because the pool is divided among everyone who qualified.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar, What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs

Allowlist

A list of wallet addresses or accounts permitted to take part in something such as a token sale, an NFT mint or a claim, often called a whitelist. Projects use it to reward early users or to screen out bots and restricted regions. Getting on one usually means completing tasks or passing identity checks, and being listed does not guarantee a purchase slot or a profit.

See: What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs, KiiChain's KII listed August 14, then an exploit drained 148.3M tokens

Basis trade

A trade that buys an asset on the spot market and sells a futures contract on it at the same time, so price moves cancel out and the profit comes from the gap between the two prices, called the basis. Funds can run it with bitcoin ETF shares and futures. That matters for news readers because inflows tied to this hedge are not a bet on price direction, and the trade can unwind when the gap closes.

Binance Alpha

A curated section of Binance Wallet that showcases early-stage tokens, often before they trade on Binance's main spot market. Traders watch it because a move from Alpha to spot is commonly read as a promotion signal. Binance states that being featured does not guarantee a later listing or confirm a project's quality, and early tokens can swing sharply in price.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, Plume (PLUME) trades on Binance spot but sits 92.7% below its high

Bonding curve

A formula built into a smart contract that sets a token's price from how much of it has been sold. Each buy raises the price and each sale lowers it, and the contract itself takes the other side, so a quote always exists. Some token launchpads use it for new memecoins. It guarantees a price, not value: late buyers can pay far more than early ones and sell back for far less.

Bridge

A service that moves value between blockchains, commonly by locking tokens on one chain and issuing a matching wrapped token on another, or by burning on one chain and minting on the other. Airdrop hunters use bridges to reach new networks. Bridges hold large pools of locked assets, so one smart contract flaw or compromised key can drain them, and bridge failures account for some of the biggest thefts in crypto.

See: Liquid Network pauses after an Elements bug drains 3,996 BTC

CEX (Centralized exchange)

A company-run trading platform such as Binance or Coinbase that holds customers' assets, matches orders on its own order book and usually requires identity checks. Listing on one gives a token wide access to fiat deposits and retail users. The tradeoff is custody risk: the exchange controls the keys, can freeze or delist assets, and can fail or wind down.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price

Circulating supply

The number of a token's units that can currently be traded, as reported by data sites, excluding locked, unvested or unminted tokens. Multiplied by price it gives market cap. A small circulating supply against the total means much of the token is still to arrive, and unlocks can add selling pressure. Data sites sometimes disagree on the figure, so check the project's own schedule.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar, KII opens on Bybit and Kraken the same day with a thin float

Claim window

The period during which eligible wallets can collect an airdrop or reward, usually on the project's official site. Many windows have an end date, and tokens unclaimed afterward may be reallocated or lost. Fake claim pages often appear the moment a drop is announced, so use only links from the project's verified channels, and expect to pay normal network gas for the claim transaction.

See: Grass Stage 2 claim is open to January 22, 2027, paid in USDC, Monad's MON airdrop ended in 2025, with 70% of tokens claimed, How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything

Cliff

A delay at the start of a vesting schedule during which no tokens unlock, followed by a first large release on one date. Team and investor tokens often have a cliff. The date matters to readers because a big tranche becoming transferable at once can add supply to the market. Cliff dates are usually public in a project's documents or in unlock trackers.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar, KiiChain's KII listed August 14, then an exploit drained 148.3M tokens

Coinbase listing roadmap

A public list of assets that Coinbase is evaluating for trading support, based on legal, security and technical review. Inclusion is a step in that process and not a confirmation that trading will begin on any set date, and full support is never guaranteed. Some roadmap assets list within days, others take longer or never list, so an addition is a signal of interest and not a promise.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, Grass is up 91% in 30 days after its Coinbase listing, now near $0.64, Coinbase and Robinhood both opened BNB trading on October 22, 2025

Cold wallet

A wallet whose private keys are kept offline, on a hardware device, paper or metal, so they are not exposed to internet-connected software. It suits long-term holdings that rarely move. Offline storage lowers the risk of remote theft, but it does not stop you from signing a harmful approval, and a lost or exposed backup phrase can still end in total loss.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit

Custody

Holding and safeguarding the private keys that control crypto assets. Custodial services such as exchanges and fund custodians keep keys for customers, while self-custody means the owner keeps them. Custody matters in news about exchanges, ETFs and trust banks because the custodian's controls decide who can move assets. If a custodian fails or freezes withdrawals, customers may wait or lose funds.

See: Circle wins final OCC approval for a national trust bank, BitMart announces a wind-down after nine years, and BMX falls 58%

DAO (Decentralized autonomous organization)

A group that manages shared funds or a protocol through smart contracts and member votes, usually weighted by governance tokens. DAOs decide treasury spending, upgrades and sometimes airdrops. The limits: turnout is often low, outcomes depend on code that can have bugs, and legal status is unsettled in many places. Jupiter's DAO, for example, voted to postpone its annual airdrop.

See: Jupiter's DAO postponed Jupuary 2026, and no new round has a date

Delisting

An exchange's removal of a token from trading. Exchanges usually flag a token for monitoring first, announce a date, cancel open orders when spot trading ends and keep withdrawals open for a set period. Holders should move tokens before the withdrawal deadline. A delisting often points to weak liquidity or compliance concerns, and the token may keep trading elsewhere on thinner markets.

See: Binance delists six tokens from spot, its fourth round of 2026, How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price

DEX (Decentralized exchange)

A trading venue run by smart contracts, where users swap tokens from their own wallets without handing assets to a company. Most use liquidity pools or on-chain order books. Airdrops often reward DEX activity. The limits: you pay network gas, thin pools cause slippage, and anyone can create a fake or malicious token, so contract addresses need checking.

See: AERO listed on Binance July 17; merger and token swap due October 21, How to farm airdrops safely with separate wallets and approval checks

Drainer

Malicious software or a contract, usually behind a fake website, that empties a wallet after the owner signs a harmful request. It does not need your recovery phrase: one signature or token approval can hand it spending rights. Drainer sites copy real claim pages and appear within minutes of airdrop news. Revoke old approvals and keep a separate wallet for new sites.

See: How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything, Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit

ETF flows

The net dollars entering or leaving exchange-traded funds that hold crypto, as shares are created or redeemed, usually reported daily per fund. Spot bitcoin ETFs hold actual bitcoin and trade on US stock exchanges, so their flows are a widely watched gauge of institutional demand. One day of flows is noisy, and it is not the same as trading volume or a price forecast.

See: Bitcoin ETFs take in $170M as Hashdex's DEFI becomes first to close, T. Rowe Price launches TKNZ, the first active multi-token crypto ETF

FDV (Fully diluted valuation)

The token price multiplied by its maximum supply, as if every locked or unissued token already existed. Compared with market cap, it shows how much future supply the market has yet to absorb, and a large gap means heavy dilution ahead. FDV can mislead when a supply cap is absent, unlock schedules change or part of the supply will be burned.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar

Funding rate

A periodic payment between traders holding long and short positions on a perpetual future, designed to keep its price close to the spot price. When the rate is positive, longs pay shorts, and when it is negative, shorts pay longs. A persistently high rate shows crowded one-sided positioning. Intervals and formulas differ by venue, and the payment is a running cost for leveraged positions.

See: Perpl's Season 1 points have run since June 10; no token is announced

Gas fee

The fee paid to a blockchain network to process a transaction, charged in the chain's own token, such as ETH on Ethereum. It rises when the network is busy, and part of it rewards the validators who include the transaction. Airdrop claims and approvals cost gas even when the tokens are free, but no legitimate airdrop charges a separate fee to the project.

See: How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything, What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs

Governance token

A token that gives holders voting power over a protocol's decisions, such as fees, upgrades and how a treasury is spent. Many airdrops distribute governance tokens. Holding one rarely carries a claim on profits, and voting power is often concentrated among a few large holders, so its value depends on what the vote can actually change.

See: Jupiter's DAO postponed Jupuary 2026, and no new round has a date

Hardware wallet

A small dedicated device that stores private keys and signs transactions inside itself, with its own screen and buttons, so keys never touch an internet-connected computer. It is the usual choice for holdings above pocket money. It cannot judge whether a request is harmful, and a flaw in the device or its firmware can still put funds at risk, as the Coldcard case showed.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit, Coldcard flaw lets attackers drain 1,816 BTC, about $116 million

Hot wallet

A wallet whose keys sit on an internet-connected device, such as a browser extension, a phone app or an exchange's online systems. Convenience is the benefit: it signs quickly and connects to apps. The cost is exposure to malware, phishing and drainers, so it should hold only what the day's activity needs. Exchanges also run hot wallets for daily withdrawals, and these have been targets of large breaches.

See: How to farm airdrops safely with separate wallets and approval checks, BitMart announces a wind-down after nine years, and BMX falls 58%

KYC (Know your customer)

Identity checks, usually an ID document and a selfie, that exchanges and some token sales require before opening an account or taking part. KYC is a compliance duty tied to anti-money-laundering rules. For readers it explains why some sales and claims are closed to certain countries, and it means the platform holds personal data that can be breached.

See: KiiChain's KII listed August 14, then an exploit drained 148.3M tokens

L2 and rollup (Layer 2)

A layer 2 is a network built on top of a base chain such as Ethereum to make transactions cheaper and faster. A rollup, the most common kind, runs transactions off the main chain and posts the data back to it, so it can lean on the base chain's security. Many airdrops reward L2 activity. Rollups can still depend on a central operator, and bridging funds in and out carries risk.

See: Abstract will shut down on December 15 and never launched a token, Robinhood Chain goes live and picks Lighter to run its perps

Launchpool

An exchange program in which users lock tokens they already hold, often the exchange's own token, and earn a share of a new project's reward pool, usually in proportion to the amount locked. Terms differ by exchange. The farmed token can fall once recipients start selling, and locked assets sit on the exchange, so counterparty risk applies.

See: Cluster Protocol's CP reaches Upbit, then falls 76% from its high, How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price

Liquidation

The forced closing of a leveraged position when losses leave too little collateral to cover it. The exchange or protocol sells the position, often at a poor price, and the trader can lose the whole deposit. Waves of liquidations can push prices further, which is why news reports total liquidated positions after sharp moves. Lending protocols also liquidate borrowers whose collateral falls too low.

See: Zcash passes $1,000 as $34.5 million of shorts are liquidated

Liquidity

How easily a token can be bought or sold without moving its price much. It depends on the orders resting on an exchange or the funds in a DEX pool. Deep liquidity means tight spreads and small price impact, while thin liquidity means a modest sale can push the price down. New listings often start thin, and liquidity can vanish quickly when sentiment turns.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, KII opens on Bybit and Kraken the same day with a thin float

Listing

The addition of a token to an exchange's trading markets. A listing on a large centralized exchange opens the token to a far bigger user base, fiat deposits and market makers. It is a commercial decision and not a safety audit, since major exchanges have listed tokens that later collapsed. Price often jumps on the announcement, then frequently fades.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, Grass is up 91% in 30 days after its Coinbase listing, now near $0.64

Market cap

A token's price multiplied by its circulating supply, a rough measure of its size. Rankings and exchange tier lists use it. Market cap is not money invested or cash held by the project, and a thinly traded token can show a large figure from a small trade. Compare it with FDV to see how much supply is still locked, and with trading volume to judge liquidity.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar

Market maker

A firm that continuously posts buy and sell quotes for a token so others can trade at tight prices. Projects hire market makers before listings, and exchanges may require them. Good quoting narrows spreads and deepens liquidity. A market maker may receive loaned tokens or other incentives from the project, which creates conflicts, and it can step back from quoting when markets turn volatile.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, Grass is up 91% in 30 days after its Coinbase listing, now near $0.64

MEV (Maximal extractable value)

The extra profit that can be taken from block production by including, excluding or reordering transactions, beyond the normal block reward and fees. Common forms are arbitrage, liquidations and sandwich trades, where a bot trades before and after your swap. Traders feel MEV as worse execution prices. Searchers, block builders and validators capture it, and routing trades privately can reduce exposure.

MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation)

The European Union's rulebook for crypto-assets not already covered by existing financial law. It sets rules for issuers of asset-referenced tokens, e-money tokens and other crypto-assets, including published white papers, and requires crypto-asset service providers such as trading platforms and custodians to be authorized and supervised. Traditional securities fall outside it. For exchanges, it shapes which EU customers they may serve.

Multisig

A wallet or contract that needs approval from a required number of its signers before funds move. It spreads risk across people or devices, so one stolen key is not enough to drain it. Projects use multisigs for treasuries and upgrades, and Jupiter sent its postponed airdrop tokens back to one. The limit is the signer set: if enough signers are compromised, collude or lose keys, the protection fails.

See: Jupiter's DAO postponed Jupuary 2026, and no new round has a date, Liquid Network pauses after an Elements bug drains 3,996 BTC

Open interest

The total value of futures or perpetual contracts that are still open, meaning not yet closed or settled. Rising open interest alongside a price move shows new money entering positions, while falling open interest shows positions closing. High open interest with heavy leverage raises the chance of cascading liquidations. It counts open contracts, not who is right, and it differs from trading volume.

See: Zcash passes $1,000 as $34.5 million of shorts are liquidated

Oracle

A service that feeds outside data, such as asset prices or event results, into smart contracts, which cannot read the outside world on their own. Lending protocols, perpetual exchanges and prediction markets all depend on oracles. If the data feed is wrong or manipulated, contracts can liquidate users or pay out incorrectly, so the quality and number of data sources matter.

See: Hyperliquid will let anyone open prediction markets for 500,000 HYPE

Order book

A live list of buy orders and sell orders at each price on an exchange. The highest bid and lowest ask set the spread, and the volume stacked at each level shows how much can trade before the price moves. Centralized exchanges and some on-chain venues use order books, while many DEXs use pools instead. A thin book moves easily, and orders can be canceled before they fill.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price

Perp (Perpetual future)

A futures contract with no expiry date that tracks an asset's price and lets traders go long or short with leverage. A funding rate keeps its price near the spot price. Many airdrop campaigns come from exchanges that trade perps. Leverage magnifies losses as well as gains, and a position can be liquidated quickly.

See: Lighter's LIT airdrop is over, but a Robinhood rewards pool is live, Polymarket launches perps at up to 20x leverage across ten markets

Points program

A scoreboard in which users earn points for activity such as trading, depositing or referring friends, with points expected to convert into a token at the TGE. It moves the uncertainty from whether you qualify to what a point is worth. Conversion rates are often unpublished, seasons can reset, and a project may never confirm a token at all.

See: What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs, Extended's points program is near its 70 million cap, TGE unannounced

Pre-market

Trading in a token's expected price before it is live on spot markets, usually through pre-market perpetual futures or IOU contracts. It lets traders guess at launch value and gives a rough read on demand. Prices rest on guesses about supply and demand, and contracts on unofficial venues carry counterparty risk and can be outright fakes, so a pre-market ticker is not the project's real token.

See: OpenSea's SEA token still has no launch date and no listing, Lighter's LIT added Upbit's won market on August 24, after Coinbase

Prediction market

A market where people trade shares tied to the outcome of a future event. A winning share pays a fixed amount, usually $1, and a losing share pays nothing, so the price is often read as the market's estimate of the odds. Polymarket is a prominent crypto example. Prices reflect who is trading, not certainty, and a result depends on how the market's rules and resolution source are written.

See: Polymarket's World Cup final market tops $4 billion, a record, Hyperliquid will let anyone open prediction markets for 500,000 HYPE

Private key

A secret number that proves ownership of a wallet and signs its transactions. Anyone who has it can move the funds, and no company can reverse the transfer. Wallets usually back it up as a seed phrase. Never type it into a website or send it in a message. If a key has been exposed, treat the wallet as permanently compromised and move assets to a new one.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit

Public key and address

A public key is derived from a private key, and a wallet address is a shorter identifier built from it that others use to send you funds. Sharing an address is safe, and it is how airdrops and snapshots identify you. Addresses are public on the blockchain, so anyone can see a wallet's balance and history. Check every character before large sends, because lookalike addresses are used in scams.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit

Restaking

Reusing assets that are already staked, or their liquid staking receipts, to help secure additional services such as other networks or oracles, in return for extra rewards. It stacks yield on the same capital. It also stacks risk: the assets can face extra penalties, called slashing, if a service fails, and each added smart contract adds another point of failure.

Rug pull

A scam in which a token's creators attract buyers, then drain the liquidity or sell their holdings and disappear, leaving the token near worthless. A variant called a honeypot lets people buy but blocks them from selling. Warning signs include anonymous teams, unlocked liquidity, concentrated holdings and unverified contract code. Newly launched tokens with no track record carry the highest risk.

See: How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything

RWA (Real-world assets)

Tokens that represent claims on off-chain assets such as government bonds, funds, credit, real estate or insurance products. Exchanges and projects have promoted the category as a way to bring traditional finance onto blockchains. A token is only as good as the legal structure and issuer behind it, so redemption rights, custody and who may hold it matter more than the on-chain wrapper.

See: Binance's June listings lean toward real-world assets, led by Re, Binance listed Re (RE) on June 18; it now trades 57.6% below its high, Plume (PLUME) trades on Binance spot but sits 92.7% below its high

Sanctions

Legal restrictions that bar dealings with listed people, companies, countries or, in crypto, specific wallet addresses. In the United States, the Treasury's OFAC can add addresses to its sanctions list, and US persons and firms must block and report assets tied to listed parties. Other governments, including the European Union, keep their own lists. Exchanges screen deposits and may freeze funds or restrict regions as a result.

See: EU sanctions bar dealings with HTX and 13 other crypto platforms

Seed phrase

A list of words that encodes a wallet's private keys and can restore the wallet on any device. Whoever holds it controls the funds. Write it on paper or metal, keep it offline in separate places, and never enter it anywhere except a wallet during setup or recovery. No legitimate airdrop, claim page or support agent needs it, and any request for it is a scam.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit, How to spot airdrop scams before you sign anything

Slippage

The gap between the price you expect when you place a trade and the price you actually get. It grows with order size, thin liquidity and fast price moves during the delay between submitting and filling. DEX apps let you set a slippage tolerance, and the trade fails if the price moves beyond it. Setting it too high on a new token invites sandwich attacks and poor fills.

Snapshot

A record of wallet balances or activity taken at a chosen block or date, used to decide who qualifies for an airdrop or a vote. Most airdrops are retroactive, so the snapshot is taken first and the rules are published later. Activity after the snapshot date does not count, and projects rarely announce the date in advance.

See: What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs, How to farm airdrops safely with separate wallets and approval checks

Spot market

The market where an asset is bought and sold for immediate delivery at the current price, so a buyer receives the actual token. It differs from futures and perps, where traders hold contracts on the price. A spot listing is what most holders mean by trading a token, and it is the step that lets airdrop recipients sell. Plain spot trades carry no liquidation risk.

See: How exchange listings work and what they do to a token's price, SLX listed on OKX spot July 10, five weeks after perps, now down 91%

Stablecoin

A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar, backed by reserves, crypto collateral or an algorithm. Traders use stablecoins as cash on exchanges and in DeFi, and some airdrops pay out in them. The peg is only as sound as the issuer's reserves, redemption rights and rules, and a stablecoin can fall below its target price. Regulations such as MiCA now cover some of them.

See: Circle wins final OCC approval for a national trust bank, Grass Stage 2 claim is open to January 22, 2027, paid in USDC

Staking

Locking tokens to help run a proof-of-stake network or protocol, in return for rewards. Validators who stake can be penalized, called slashing, for provable misbehavior. Exchanges and apps offer staking for a fee, which adds counterparty risk. Rewards are paid in the same token, so the return is not guaranteed in dollar terms, and locked tokens may take time to withdraw.

See: Ethereum's Glamsterdam upgrade heads into its final devnet

Sybil attack

One person running many wallets or accounts to collect many shares of a reward meant for different users. Airdrop teams filter sybils by clustering wallets that share a funding source, timing or action pattern, then disqualify the group. Some publish their blacklists. Hunters are safer using one wallet per protocol and behaving like a normal user, because mass checklist wallets are the ones filtered.

See: How to farm airdrops safely with separate wallets and approval checks, What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs

TGE (Token generation event)

The day a token is created and first becomes tradable or claimable. For airdrop hunters it ends the points phase and starts the claim window and the first exchange listings. Dates slip often, and even a confirmed TGE can be delayed. Recipients meet their first real liquidity at the TGE, which is why prices tend to be volatile around it.

See: What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs, Propr's PROPR token missed its August 24 TGE, with no new date set

Token approval

Permission a wallet gives a smart contract to spend a specific token on the owner's behalf, such as when swapping on a DEX. Approvals often stay active until revoked, and many apps request unlimited amounts. A hostile contract holding an approval can empty the token later. Cap amounts where the wallet allows, and review and revoke old approvals with a reputable checker every month.

See: Crypto wallet security in four decisions and one habit, How to farm airdrops safely with separate wallets and approval checks

Token unlock

A scheduled date when previously locked tokens become transferable, such as team, investor or ecosystem allocations. Unlocks add potential selling supply, so traders follow unlock calendars. The effect depends on the size against trading volume and on who receives the tokens. A big unlock does not force a price drop, since it may be priced in or holders may keep their tokens.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar, A $1.5 billion unlock week opens September, and $797M of it is HYPE

Tokenomics

The design of a token's supply and distribution: maximum supply, how much circulates, who holds the rest, vesting schedules, emissions and any burns or fees. It shapes future selling pressure more than most headlines do. Tokenomics describes structure and not the quality of the project, and a project can change its schedule through a governance vote.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar

Treasury company

A listed company that holds crypto, often bitcoin, as a main balance sheet asset and raises money through stock or debt to buy more. Strategy is the best-known example. Such firms are sensitive to the price of their holdings and to their funding costs, so their sales or buybacks can move sentiment. Their shares can trade at a premium or discount to the crypto they hold.

See: Strategy sells 3,588 BTC, its largest sale ever, to pay dividends, Strategy sells 1,690 BTC for $108.6 million to buy back STRC

TVL (Total value locked)

The dollar value of assets deposited in a DeFi protocol's smart contracts, used as a rough gauge of its size and usage. TVL rises with token prices even when depositors add nothing, and trackers count it differently, for example by treating reused deposits twice. A fall can reflect price drops or withdrawals, so check both. Incentive programs can inflate it temporarily.

See: MMT is down 96% from its high as Momentum's locked value falls 99%

Vesting

A schedule that releases tokens to team members, investors or recipients gradually instead of all at once, often after a cliff. It is meant to keep insiders committed and limit sudden selling. Terms are set in the project's documents, so check them: some airdrop tokens vest, while others arrive fully unlocked, and early investors often have a lower cost basis than public buyers.

See: How to read a token's supply, float, FDV and unlock calendar, What a crypto airdrop is, who qualifies and what it costs

Wash trading

Trading with oneself, or with a colluding partner, to create a false impression of activity. In crypto it inflates volume and rankings and can make a token look more liquid than it is. It is illegal in most regulated markets, but oversight of crypto venues varies. Volume far above peers with no price effect is a warning, and comparing volume across independent venues helps.

See: Extended's points program is near its 70 million cap, TGE unannounced