Institutional Crypto Glossary · Investing

Admin quorum: the minimum number of a custody client's administrators who must approve a sensitive change, such as adding a user or allowlisting an address (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
ASU 2023-08: the FASB standard (Subtopic 350-60) that measures in-scope crypto assets at fair value with changes in net income, adopted through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Authorized participant (AP): a broker-dealer with an agreement to create and redeem an ETP's shares in baskets; everyone else trades the shares on the exchange (Crypto ETPs).
Basket: the fixed block of shares an ETP creates or redeems in one unit (40,000 shares for the iShares Bitcoin Trust), priced at NAV times the block (Crypto ETPs).
BTC Yield: Strategy's KPI, the percentage change over a period in bitcoin per assumed diluted share (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Cash creation: an ETP creation in which the AP delivers cash, the trust buys the asset, and the AP pays any gap between the trust's execution price and the NAV price (Crypto ETPs).
Control (safekeeping): the bank regulators' test for crypto custody: no other party, the customer included, has information sufficient to move the asset alone (Qualified Custody).
Custody (Advisers Act): holding client funds or securities directly or indirectly, or having any authority to obtain possession of them, including authority to withdraw (Qualified Custody).
Digital asset treasury company: a listed company whose main asset is a crypto position funded by issuing stock, convertible notes and preferred stock (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
F/B/O titling: titling a sub-custodian's account or wallet "for the benefit of" the custodian's customers, which NYDFS requires for customer assets in sub-custody (Qualified Custody).
Generic listing standards: exchange rules approved in September 2025 that let a commodity-based trust meeting set tests list without its own 19(b) rule filing (Crypto ETPs).
Impairment model (crypto): the pre-2025 treatment of crypto as indefinite-lived intangibles, written down to the lowest price since acquisition and never written back up (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
In-kind creation: an ETP creation in which the asset itself, not cash, is delivered for shares; allowed for US crypto ETPs since July 29, 2025 (Crypto ETPs).
Liquidation LTV: the loan-to-value at which a crypto lender sells collateral without waiting for a margin call to be cured (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
Loan-to-value (LTV, crypto loan): a loan's accrued debt divided by its collateral's marked value, recomputed on every mark change (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
mNAV: what the market pays for a treasury company relative to the crypto it holds, on a market capitalization or enterprise value basis; definitions vary (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
NAV strike: an ETP's once-daily net asset value, computed after 4 pm Eastern from a named benchmark rate, holdings and accrued liabilities (Crypto ETPs).
Off-exchange settlement: trading on an exchange against collateral that stays locked at a custodian, with net results moved between custody accounts each cycle (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
Prime broker (crypto): a firm that combines custody, multi-venue execution, settlement credit and financing for an institution (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
Qualified custodian: an institution an adviser may use under the custody rule: a bank or savings association, a broker-dealer, an FCM for certain assets, or a qualifying foreign financial institution (Qualified Custody).
Rehypothecation: a lender reusing collateral pledged to it, by lending or repledging it; the large crypto lenders that survived 2022 disclaim it (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
SAB 121: the SEC staff's 2022 bulletin that had safeguarding entities record a liability and asset at fair value for crypto held for others; rescinded in January 2025 (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
SAB 122: the January 2025 bulletin that rescinded SAB 121 and left the risk of loss on safeguarded crypto to the ordinary contingency test (ASC 450-20, IAS 37) (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Sub-custodian: a custodian holding assets on another custodian's behalf; the primary custodian stays responsible and needs its records to reconcile (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
Surprise examination: the annual unannounced verification of client assets by an independent accountant that the custody rule requires (Qualified Custody).
Trade Credit: short-term credit a prime broker's lending affiliate gives an ETP to settle trades before its assets move; interest-free and due the next business day for the iShares Bitcoin Trust (Crypto ETPs).
Trading Balance and Vault Balance: an ETP's omnibus claim at its prime execution agent, used to trade, and its segregated cold-storage holdings, swept together daily (Crypto ETPs).
Tri-party collateral: collateral held by a custodian that is neither borrower nor lender, released to the lender only on a default notice under a control agreement (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).

Admin quorum: the minimum number of a custody client's administrators who must approve a sensitive change, such as adding a user or allowlisting an address (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
ASU 2023-08: the FASB standard (Subtopic 350-60) that measures in-scope crypto assets at fair value with changes in net income, adopted through a cumulative-effect adjustment to retained earnings (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Authorized participant (AP): a broker-dealer with an agreement to create and redeem an ETP's shares in baskets; everyone else trades the shares on the exchange (Crypto ETPs).
Basket: the fixed block of shares an ETP creates or redeems in one unit (40,000 shares for the iShares Bitcoin Trust), priced at NAV times the block (Crypto ETPs).
BTC Yield: Strategy's KPI, the percentage change over a period in bitcoin per assumed diluted share (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Cash creation: an ETP creation in which the AP delivers cash, the trust buys the asset, and the AP pays any gap between the trust's execution price and the NAV price (Crypto ETPs).
Control (safekeeping): the bank regulators' test for crypto custody: no other party, the customer included, has information sufficient to move the asset alone (Qualified Custody).
Custody (Advisers Act): holding client funds or securities directly or indirectly, or having any authority to obtain possession of them, including authority to withdraw (Qualified Custody).
Digital asset treasury company: a listed company whose main asset is a crypto position funded by issuing stock, convertible notes and preferred stock (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
F/B/O titling: titling a sub-custodian's account or wallet "for the benefit of" the custodian's customers, which NYDFS requires for customer assets in sub-custody (Qualified Custody).
Generic listing standards: exchange rules approved in September 2025 that let a commodity-based trust meeting set tests list without its own 19(b) rule filing (Crypto ETPs).
Impairment model (crypto): the pre-2025 treatment of crypto as indefinite-lived intangibles, written down to the lowest price since acquisition and never written back up (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
In-kind creation: an ETP creation in which the asset itself, not cash, is delivered for shares; allowed for US crypto ETPs since July 29, 2025 (Crypto ETPs).
Liquidation LTV: the loan-to-value at which a crypto lender sells collateral without waiting for a margin call to be cured (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
Loan-to-value (LTV, crypto loan): a loan's accrued debt divided by its collateral's marked value, recomputed on every mark change (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
mNAV: what the market pays for a treasury company relative to the crypto it holds, on a market capitalization or enterprise value basis; definitions vary (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
NAV strike: an ETP's once-daily net asset value, computed after 4 pm Eastern from a named benchmark rate, holdings and accrued liabilities (Crypto ETPs).
Off-exchange settlement: trading on an exchange against collateral that stays locked at a custodian, with net results moved between custody accounts each cycle (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
Prime broker (crypto): a firm that combines custody, multi-venue execution, settlement credit and financing for an institution (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
Qualified custodian: an institution an adviser may use under the custody rule: a bank or savings association, a broker-dealer, an FCM for certain assets, or a qualifying foreign financial institution (Qualified Custody).
Rehypothecation: a lender reusing collateral pledged to it, by lending or repledging it; the large crypto lenders that survived 2022 disclaim it (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).
SAB 121: the SEC staff's 2022 bulletin that had safeguarding entities record a liability and asset at fair value for crypto held for others; rescinded in January 2025 (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
SAB 122: the January 2025 bulletin that rescinded SAB 121 and left the risk of loss on safeguarded crypto to the ordinary contingency test (ASC 450-20, IAS 37) (Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies).
Sub-custodian: a custodian holding assets on another custodian's behalf; the primary custodian stays responsible and needs its records to reconcile (Custody Platforms & Policy Engines).
Surprise examination: the annual unannounced verification of client assets by an independent accountant that the custody rule requires (Qualified Custody).
Trade Credit: short-term credit a prime broker's lending affiliate gives an ETP to settle trades before its assets move; interest-free and due the next business day for the iShares Bitcoin Trust (Crypto ETPs).
Trading Balance and Vault Balance: an ETP's omnibus claim at its prime execution agent, used to trade, and its segregated cold-storage holdings, swept together daily (Crypto ETPs).
Tri-party collateral: collateral held by a custodian that is neither borrower nor lender, released to the lender only on a default notice under a control agreement (Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending).