Briefing

210 terms

AddressWallets & safety

The public name of a wallet or program. Safe to share.

Address poisoningRisk & scams

Sending you a tiny transfer from a lookalike address so you copy it from your history by mistake.

AggregatorLiquidity

A router that quotes many pools and splits or hops your swap for the best fill. Jupiter on Solana; 1inch and 0x on EVM chains.

AirdropTokens

Tokens sent to wallets for free, often to reward early users. Unexpected ones are often bait.

Airdrop PointsProteus

Points earned for token scans, your first portfolio scan each UTC day, and referrals. They set your share of a Treasury airdrop when an Annual subscription covers that epoch. Single Use does not join the drop.

AMMLiquidity

Automated market maker. A pool that prices swaps with a formula instead of an order book.

AnalyzerProteus

Paste a Solana, Base, or BNB Chain token address for a full scan: Stats, Liquidity, Holders, Safety, Technicals, and Oracle.

ApprovalWallets & safety

On EVM chains, permission you give a contract to move a token from your wallet. Unlimited approvals stay open until revoked.

APRLiquidity

Annual percentage rate. A yearly return without compounding.

APYLiquidity

Annual percentage yield. A yearly return assuming earnings are reinvested.

Associated token accountTokens

On Solana, the default account that holds one token for one wallet.

ATHTrading

All-time high.

AtlasProteus

Pairs creator wallets with their known launches, in both directions.

AuditDeFi

A security review of contract code. It lowers risk; it does not remove it.

BagTrading

A position you hold, often one that is down.

BaseChains

An Ethereum layer 2 built on the OP Stack. Gas is paid in ETH.

Base / quote tokenLiquidity

In a pair like BONK/SOL, the token being priced (base) and the one it is priced in (quote).

Base feeChains

The minimum fee a transaction must pay. On Solana, 5,000 lamports per signature.

BEP-20Tokens

The token standard on BNB Chain. Compatible with ERC-20.

Bid / askTrading

The best price a buyer will pay and a seller will accept. The gap is the spread.

BinLiquidity

In Meteora DLMM, one fixed price step that holds liquidity.

BitcoinChains

The first blockchain. Proof of work, about 10-minute blocks, capped at 21 million BTC.

Blind signingWallets & safety

Approving a transaction your wallet cannot decode for you. Avoid it unless you fully trust the source.

BlockBasics

A batch of transactions added to the chain in order.

Block explorerBasics

A website for reading a chain: Solscan for Solana, Basescan for Base, BscScan for BNB Chain.

BlockchainBasics

A shared record of transactions, grouped into blocks and copied across many computers.

BNB ChainChains

BNB Smart Chain, an EVM chain secured by Proof of Staked Authority. Gas is paid in BNB.

Bollinger BandsTrading

A 20-period moving average with bands two standard deviations above and below.

Bonding curveLiquidity

A launch contract that sells a new token at a formula price that rises as supply sells, until it graduates. pump.fun and Four.meme use them.

Borrow rateDeFi

The interest a lending protocol charges, usually rising as more of a pool is borrowed.

BridgeChains

A system that locks an asset on one chain and issues a stand-in on another.

Bridge hackRisk & scams

Draining the assets a bridge locks, leaving its bridged tokens unbacked.

Bundled launchRisk & scams

Insiders buying a new token in the same block or bundle it launches, often across many wallets.

BurnTokens

Sending tokens where nobody can move them, removing them from supply for good.

Burned LPLiquidity

LP tokens sent to a burn address so the liquidity can never be withdrawn.

Burner walletWallets & safety

A separate wallet with little in it, used for new coins and unfamiliar sites.

CandlestickTrading

One bar of a chart showing open, high, low, and close for a time period.

CEXTrading

Centralized exchange, like Coinbase or Binance. It holds your funds while you trade.

CircleProteus

The Proteus membership: invites, votes, endorsements, and flags.

Circulating supplyTokens

Tokens actually out in the market now.

CLMMLiquidity

Concentrated liquidity market maker. LPs choose a price range. Raydium CLMM, Orca Whirlpools, and Uniswap v3 work this way.

ClusterRisk & scams

Wallets that share a funding source or trade together and likely belong to one actor.

CoinTokens

Usually the native asset of a chain — BTC, SOL, ETH, BNB — as opposed to a token issued on it.

Cold walletWallets & safety

A wallet whose key never touches an internet-connected device.

CollateralDeFi

Assets you lock to borrow against.

Compute unitsChains

Solana’s measure of how much work a transaction does. Priority fees are priced per unit.

Concentrated liquidityLiquidity

Liquidity placed inside a chosen price range, earning more per dollar while price stays there.

ConsensusBasics

The rules a network uses to agree on one history.

Constant productLiquidity

The x · y = k rule: the two balances multiplied together stay the same through swaps.

CustodialWallets & safety

A platform holds the keys for you, like an exchange account. You rely on it to withdraw.

DAODeFi

A group that governs a protocol or treasury through token votes.

DCATrading

Dollar-cost averaging: buying a fixed amount on a schedule instead of all at once.

DecentralizationBasics

How many independent parties it would take to censor, change, or stop a network.

DecimalsTokens

How finely a token divides. Many SPL tokens use 6 or 9; most ERC-20s use 18.

DeFiDeFi

Decentralized finance: swapping, lending, and earning through on-chain programs instead of banks.

DepegRisk & scams

When a stablecoin or wrapped token trades away from its target value.

DepthLiquidity

How much can trade near the current price before it moves a lot.

Dev walletRisk & scams

The wallet that deployed a token. What it holds and sells matters.

DEXTrading

Decentralized exchange. Swaps run through on-chain programs, and you keep custody.

DLMMLiquidity

Meteora’s dynamic liquidity market maker. Liquidity sits in discrete price bins, and fees can rise with volatility.

DocketProteus

The public feed of wallet forensics that someone chose to publish, tagged into rings.

DrainerRisk & scams

A malicious site or transaction built to empty a wallet once you sign.

DYORRisk & scams

Do your own research.

Ed25519Basics

The signature scheme Solana keys use.

EMATrading

Exponential moving average. Weights recent prices more than a simple average.

EmissionsTokens

New tokens released over time, often as rewards.

EpochBasics

On Solana, a period of 432,000 slots (about two to three days) after which staking rewards and validator schedules update.

ERC-20Tokens

The fungible token standard on Ethereum and EVM chains like Base.

ERC-721Tokens

The standard for NFTs on EVM chains.

EthereumChains

The chain that made smart contracts mainstream. Proof of stake; Base settles to it.

EVMChains

Ethereum Virtual Machine. Base and BNB Chain both run it, which is why they share the 0x address format.

Exit liquidityTrading

Late buyers whose purchases let earlier holders sell.

ExploitDeFi

An attack that abuses a bug or design flaw to drain funds.

Fake airdropRisk & scams

An unsolicited token with a link, meant to lure you to a drainer.

FDVTokens

Fully diluted value. Price times the maximum supply, including tokens not yet circulating.

Fee tierLiquidity

The percentage a pool charges on each swap, from 0.01% to 1% or more.

Fibonacci retracementTrading

Levels at 23.6%, 38.2%, 50%, and 61.8% of a move, watched as possible pullback zones.

FinalityBasics

The point after which a transaction cannot be reversed.

Flash loanDeFi

A loan borrowed and repaid in the same transaction, with no collateral. Often used in exploits.

Float (Proteus)Proteus

The top-holder percentage after labeled pools, curves, burn addresses, lockers, treasuries, team wallets, exchanges, and programs are set aside.

FOMOTrading

Fear of missing out. The feeling that makes people buy tops.

ForensicsProteus

Trace one Solana, Base, or BNB Chain wallet’s funding, ledger, and rings, or run Nexus across up to 25 wallets on one of those chains.

ForkBasics

A split in a chain’s history or rules. A hard fork is an upgrade old software will not accept.

Freeze authorityTokens

On Solana, a key that can freeze token accounts. Revoked means nobody can.

Funding rateTrading

Periodic payments between longs and shorts that keep a perpetual’s price near spot.

GasBasics

The fee you pay the network to process a transaction.

Genesis blockBasics

The first block of a chain.

Governance tokenTokens

A token that carries votes on a protocol’s upgrades, fees, or treasury.

GraduationLiquidity

When a bonding curve fills and its token moves into a normal pool.

GweiBasics

One billionth of an ETH. Gas prices on Ethereum and Base are quoted in it.

HalvingBasics

Bitcoin’s block reward cut in half every 210,000 blocks, about every four years.

Hardware walletWallets & safety

A device that keeps the private key offline and signs without exposing it.

HashBasics

A fixed-length fingerprint of data. Any change to the input changes the output completely.

Health factorDeFi

How safe a loan is. When it falls below 1, the position can be liquidated.

HoneypotRisk & scams

A token that lets you buy but blocks or heavily taxes selling.

Hot walletWallets & safety

A wallet app on a connected phone or computer. Convenient, and more exposed.

Impermanent lossLiquidity

How much less an LP position is worth than simply holding the same tokens, caused by price moving after you deposit.

In rangeLiquidity

A concentrated position whose range contains the current price, so it earns fees.

JitoChains

A Solana block engine that lands bundles of transactions together in exchange for a tip.

KYCWallets & safety

Know your customer: identity checks exchanges run before you trade or withdraw.

LamportBasics

The smallest unit of SOL: one billionth of a SOL.

Layer 1Chains

A base chain with its own security, like Bitcoin, Ethereum, or Solana.

Layer 2Chains

A chain that settles to another chain for security. Base is a layer 2 on Ethereum.

Lending protocolDeFi

A market where depositors earn interest and borrowers pay it, like Kamino on Solana or Aave on EVM chains.

LeverageTrading

Trading with borrowed money. It multiplies gains and losses.

Limit orderTrading

An order that fills only at your price or better.

Liquid stakingDeFi

Staking through a protocol that hands you a tradable token for your stake.

Liquid staking tokenTokens

A token for staked coins that keeps earning rewards and can still be traded, like JitoSOL, mSOL, or stETH.

LiquidationTrading

A forced close of a leveraged or borrowed position when collateral runs too low.

LiquidityLiquidity

Tokens sitting in a pool for traders to swap against. More liquidity means less price impact.

Liquidity poolLiquidity

A smart contract holding two or more tokens that traders swap against.

Long / shortTrading

A bet that price goes up (long) or down (short).

LPLiquidity

Liquidity provider — someone who deposits into a pool and earns a share of its fees.

LP lockLiquidity

LP tokens held in a time-locked contract so liquidity cannot be pulled before a date.

LP tokenLiquidity

A receipt for your share of a pool. Concentrated positions are often NFTs instead.

MACDTrading

Moving Average Convergence Divergence: the gap between the 12- and 26-period EMAs, with a 9-period signal line.

Market capTokens

Price times circulating supply.

Market makerTrading

A trader or firm that quotes both sides of a market and earns the spread.

Market orderTrading

An order that fills now at whatever price is available. A DEX swap is one.

Max supplyTokens

The most tokens that can ever exist, if there is a cap.

MemecoinTokens

A token driven by culture and attention, usually with no revenue behind it.

MempoolBasics

The waiting room of pending transactions on chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum. Solana forwards transactions straight to upcoming leaders instead.

Merkle treeBasics

A tree of hashes that lets anyone prove one transaction is in a block without downloading the whole block.

MEVTrading

Maximal extractable value. Profit taken by reordering, inserting, or censoring transactions.

MinerBasics

A computer that produces blocks in proof of work by finding a valid hash.

MintTokens

On Solana, the account that defines a token. Also the act of creating new supply.

Mint authorityTokens

On Solana, the key that can create more of a token. Revoked means supply is fixed.

Multi-hopLiquidity

A swap routed through a middle token, like token → SOL → USDC.

MultisigWallets & safety

A wallet that needs several keys to approve a transaction, such as Squads on Solana or Safe on EVM chains.

Name serviceWallets & safety

Readable names that point to addresses, like .sol on Solana or .eth on Ethereum.

NFTTokens

A non-fungible token: one unique item, like art, a ticket, or an LP position.

NodeBasics

A computer running the chain’s software and keeping a copy of the ledger.

NonceBasics

In mining, the number changed until a block’s hash meets the difficulty target. On EVM chains it also counts the transactions a wallet has sent.

ObservatoryProteus

The public feed of contracts scanned in the lab, with stats, holders, and Proteus takes.

OP StackChains

Open-source software for building Ethereum rollups. Base runs on it.

Optimistic rollupChains

A rollup that assumes batches are valid unless challenged. Withdrawing through its official bridge takes about seven days.

Oracle (Proteus)Proteus

The Analyzer tab with the Proteus AI reading. Free scans get a teaser; Premium gets the full reading.

Order bookTrading

A list of buy and sell orders at each price, used by CEXs and some DEXs.

Out of rangeLiquidity

A concentrated position whose range no longer contains the price. It earns nothing and holds one side.

Over-collateralizedDeFi

Borrowing less than the value you locked, so price drops can be absorbed.

PassphraseWallets & safety

An optional extra word added to a seed phrase that creates a completely different set of wallets.

Permanent delegateTokens

A Token-2022 extension that lets one address move or burn anyone’s balance of that token.

Perpetual futuresTrading

Leveraged contracts with no expiry that track a coin’s price. Kept in line by the funding rate.

PhishingRisk & scams

Impersonating a real site or person to steal keys, seed phrases, or signatures.

Pig butcheringRisk & scams

A long con: weeks of friendship, then a fake platform that shows gains but never pays out.

PortfolioProteus

A Premium deep dive of a connected Solana wallet: holdings, activity, bag health, and red flags.

PremiumProteus

Paid desk access in SOL. Single Use is one payment for 300 scans and 30 dives. Those uses do not expire or refill, and Single Use does not join airdrops. Annual is the 365-day subscription and the only plan that does. Neither charges again on its own. 70% of each payment goes to the Treasury, 30% to Ops.

Price impactTrading

How far your own trade moves the pool price.

Price oracleBasics

A service that brings outside data such as prices on-chain, like Pyth or Chainlink.

Priority feeChains

An optional extra fee that helps a transaction land faster when blocks are busy.

Private keyWallets & safety

The secret that signs for a wallet. Whoever has it controls the funds.

Proof of HistoryBasics

Solana’s running hash clock that timestamps the order of events before validators vote.

Proof of stakeBasics

Validators lock up the chain’s coin to earn the right to produce blocks, and can lose it for cheating. Solana uses it.

Proof of workBasics

Miners spend computation to find a valid block hash. Bitcoin uses it.

Protocol feeLiquidity

The share of swap fees a venue keeps for itself instead of paying LPs.

Proxy contractTokens

An EVM contract whose logic can be swapped by its admin, so the rules can change after you buy.

Public keyWallets & safety

The shareable half of a keypair, used to verify signatures. A Solana address is the public key.

RadarProteus

Pools on Solana, Base, and BNB Chain screened for structure, traction, and LP research quality.

Renounced ownershipTokens

An EVM contract whose owner role was given up, so owner-only functions can no longer be called.

RentTokens

On Solana, the refundable deposit an account must hold. About 0.002 SOL for a token account.

RevokeWallets & safety

Cancelling a token approval you gave a contract.

Risk scoreProteus

A rating built from on-chain structure. Higher means more risk flags. Under 40 Low, 40–59 Medium, 60–79 High, 80+ Extreme.

RollupChains

A chain that executes transactions off Ethereum and posts the data back to it.

RSITrading

Relative Strength Index, 0–100. Above 70 is usually read as stretched, below 30 as washed out.

Rug pullRisk & scams

When insiders drain liquidity or dump supply, leaving holders with a token nobody can sell into.

Safety tabProteus

The Analyzer tab for exit traps, Token-2022 and authority flags, and LP and deployer context.

SandwichTrading

A bot buys just before your swap and sells right after, profiting from the price your trade pushes.

SatoshiBasics

The smallest unit of bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC.

secp256k1Basics

The elliptic curve Bitcoin and Ethereum keys use.

Seed phraseWallets & safety

12 or 24 words that regenerate your private keys. Anyone with them owns the wallet.

Self-custodyWallets & safety

You hold your own keys. Nobody can freeze your funds, and nobody can recover them for you.

SequencerChains

The party that orders transactions on a rollup before they are posted to the base chain.

SHA-256Basics

The hash function Bitcoin uses for blocks and mining.

Sign-in with SolanaWallets & safety

Logging in by signing a message with your wallet. No transaction, nothing spent. Proteus uses it.

SignatureWallets & safety

Proof, made with a private key, that an address approved an exact message or transaction.

Single-sided liquidityLiquidity

Depositing only one token into a range above or below the price, as some concentrated pools allow.

SlippageTrading

The difference between the quoted price and the price you actually get.

Slippage toleranceTrading

How much worse than the quote you accept before a swap fails instead of filling.

SlotBasics

Solana’s time window, roughly 400 milliseconds, in which one leader may produce a block.

SMATrading

Simple moving average: the plain average of the last N closes.

Smart contractBasics

Code deployed on a chain that runs exactly as written when called. Solana calls them programs.

SniperTrading

A bot or wallet that buys a new token in its first block or seconds.

Soft rugRisk & scams

Insiders selling slowly over days instead of pulling everything at once.

SolanaChains

A fast proof-of-stake chain with Proof of History. Gas and rent are paid in SOL.

SPL tokenTokens

A token on Solana, created through the Token Program or Token-2022.

StablecoinTokens

A token designed to hold a steady value, usually one US dollar, such as USDC or USDT.

StakingDeFi

Locking a proof-of-stake coin with a validator to help secure the chain and earn rewards.

Stop-lossTrading

An order that sells automatically if price falls to a level you set.

Support / resistanceTrading

Price areas where buying or selling has repeatedly stepped in.

Technicals tabProteus

The 1h chart read: RSI, MACD, EMAs, Bollinger Bands, support and resistance, and Fibonacci levels.

TickLiquidity

In a CLMM, one step on the price grid. In Uniswap v3, each tick is a 0.01% move.

TokenTokens

An asset issued on top of a chain by a program or contract.

Token-2022Tokens

Solana’s newer token program. It adds extensions like transfer fees and transfer hooks, which can also be used as traps.

TransactionBasics

A signed instruction to the chain: send, swap, mint, vote.

Transaction IDBasics

The unique reference for a transaction. On Solana it is the first signature; on EVM chains it is the transaction hash.

Transfer hookTokens

A Token-2022 extension that runs a program on every transfer. Useful, or a way to block sells.

Transfer taxTokens

A fee skimmed on every buy, sell, or transfer.

TreasuryProteus

The on-chain Solana wallet that funds Circle airdrops. It receives 70% of every Premium payment. Only Annual joins a drop.

TurnoverLiquidity

24h volume divided by liquidity. Very high turnover on a small pool is a common wash-trading sign.

TVLLiquidity

Total value locked — the dollar value sitting in a pool or protocol.

Update authorityTokens

On Solana, the key that can change a token’s name, symbol, and image.

ValidatorBasics

A node that votes on and produces blocks in proof of stake.

VestingTokens

A schedule that releases team or investor tokens over time. Each release is an unlock.

VolatilityTrading

How much and how fast a price moves.

VolumeTrading

The dollar value traded over a period, usually 24 hours.

Wash tradingRisk & scams

Trading with yourself to fake volume.

WhaleTrading

A holder large enough to move the price alone.

Wrapped tokenTokens

A coin repackaged as a token, like WSOL or WETH, or an asset held by a custodian, like WBTC.

Yield farmingDeFi

Moving funds between pools and protocols to collect fees and reward tokens.

ZK rollupChains

A rollup that posts a cryptographic proof that each batch is valid.