Research

Research

Longer notes. Not the morning recap.

Litecoin marks 15 yearsCharlie Lee shipped the software in October 2011. Fifteen years later the blocks are still coming, on a chain that launched fair and never rolled back.

01ResearchWhat is a perpetual futures contractA perpetual is a futures bet with no expiration date. Margin is posted in a coin such as USDT, and leverage is a ceiling, not a requirement.02ResearchWhat is a stock tokenA stock token is a claim that tracks a share. It is not the share, unless the issuer says the holder gets the dividend, the vote, and a way to redeem.03ResearchWhat is a stablecoinA stablecoin is a token meant to stay near one dollar. The supply is the number of those tokens outstanding, not a price investors bid.04ResearchWhat is BitcoinBitcoin is a public ledger with a 21 million coin cap. New coins are paid to miners, and the dollar price is a separate number from the supply.05ResearchWhat is a crypto walletA wallet holds the keys that spend coins. It does not hold the coins. The coins stay on the chain.06ResearchWhat is a Bitcoin ETFA spot Bitcoin ETF is a fund share that tracks bitcoin. The shareholder owns the share. The fund owns the coins.07ResearchWhat is a Bitcoin halvingA halving cuts the new coins paid to miners by half. It does not cut the coins already issued, and it does not set the price.08ResearchWhat is a decentralized exchangeA decentralized exchange matches trades from a wallet, or from a pool, instead of from an account at a company.09ResearchWhat is stakingStaking locks a coin so its holder can help run a proof-of-stake chain, and be paid from new coins or fees. The lock has a wait to get out.10ResearchWhat is a layer 2A layer 2 processes transactions off the main chain and posts the proof, or the data, back to it. The main chain is still the record that settles.11ResearchWhat is open interestOpen interest is the value of futures contracts still open. It is not the volume traded, and it is not a bet on the next price.12ResearchWhat is a funding rateFunding is a payment between longs and shorts that keeps a perpetual near the spot price. It is not a dividend.13ResearchWhat is liquidationLiquidation is the forced close of a leveraged position when the margin is no longer enough. The trader does not choose the price.14ResearchWhat is market capMarket cap is the price times the coins outstanding. It is not the cash in the market, and it is not the supply of a stablecoin.