Glossary
Cryptocurrency fraud and tracing terms, explained plainly
39 definitions covering the vocabulary that appears in bank correspondence, exchange replies, police reports and trace findings — written for people who did not choose to learn any of it.
Tracing
Deposit address
An address a service issues to a specific customer so incoming funds can be credited to their account.
Read definitionGas sponsor
An address that pays activation or fee costs for other wallets, often revealing common control.
Read definitionOnchain tracing
Following value across addresses using published ledger data, and classifying where the trail ends.
Read definitionClustering
Grouping addresses likely under common control, using patterns such as shared spending or funding.
Read definitionPeel chain
A long sequence of transfers that each split off a small amount while the bulk moves on.
Read definitionMixer
A service or protocol that pools funds from many users to break the link between source and destination.
Read definitionBridge
A service that moves value from one network to another, continuing the trail on a different ledger.
Read definitionAttribution
Linking an address to a real-world service or person, using information from outside the ledger.
Read definitionTransactions
Transaction hash
The unique fingerprint of a transaction, used to look it up on any block explorer.
Read definitionBlock explorer
A public website that lets anyone read a network's ledger — transactions, addresses and balances.
Read definitionConfirmation
A block added on top of the block containing your transaction; more confirmations mean less chance of reversal.
Read definitionFinality
The point at which a transaction can no longer realistically be reversed by the network.
Read definitionIrreversibility
The property that a confirmed transfer cannot be undone by the sender, the network or any authority.
Read definitionGas
The fee paid to have a transaction processed, denominated in the network's native asset.
Read definitionWallets
Address
A public identifier that funds can be sent to, derived from a cryptographic key pair. It identifies a destination, not a person.
Read definitionPrivate key
The secret value that authorises spending from an address. Anyone holding it controls the funds, permanently and irreversibly.
Read definitionSeed phrase
A list of 12 or 24 words that regenerates every private key in a wallet. It is the wallet, in portable form.
Read definitionWallet
Software or hardware that stores keys and signs transactions. It holds keys, not coins — the balances live on the ledger.
Read definitionCold wallet
A wallet whose keys never touch an internet-connected device; signing happens on the device itself.
Read definitionHot wallet
A wallet running on an internet-connected device, such as a browser extension or phone app.
Read definitionCustodial account
An account where a business holds the keys on your behalf — most commonly an exchange account.
Read definitionNetworks
Exchange
A business that converts between cryptocurrencies and traditional currency and holds customer balances.
Read definitionBlock
A batch of transactions added to the ledger together, linked to the block before it.
Read definitionToken
An asset issued by a contract on an existing network, rather than the network's own native coin.
Read definitionStablecoin
A token designed to hold a steady value against a currency, most commonly the US dollar.
Read definitionSmart contract
Code deployed to a network that executes automatically when called, with no ability to intervene mid-way.
Read definitionTron
A high-throughput network with very low fees, carrying a large share of global USDT transfers.
Read definitionNetwork
The distributed system that records and validates transactions, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Tron.
Read definitionFraud
Token approval
Permission you grant a contract to move a token on your behalf, which stays in force until you revoke it.
Read definitionApproval revocation
Cancelling a permission you previously granted a contract, so it can no longer move your tokens.
Read definitionWallet drainer
A malicious contract or site designed to obtain signatures that let it withdraw a victim's tokens.
Read definitionPhishing
Impersonation of a trusted brand or person to obtain credentials, signatures or payments.
Read definitionImpersonation fraud
Someone posing as a bank, exchange, investigator or official to obtain funds or access.
Read definitionAdvance-fee fraud
A demand for payment before a promised benefit, made to someone who has already lost money.
Read definitionLong-form investment fraud
A relationship built over weeks or months, then used to move the victim onto a fake trading platform.
Read definitionReporting
KYC
The identity checks a regulated business performs on its customers, and the records it keeps.
Read definitionFreeze
A restriction placed on an account or address so funds cannot be withdrawn.
Read definitionAction Fraud
The UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, and the route for reporting cryptocurrency fraud.
Read definitionEvidence pack
A structured written report setting out the traced path, the hashes behind it, and the confidence in each step.
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