# Institutional Crypto Glossary

> 28 terms from the Investing & Digital Assets book's Institutional Crypto part, each defined in a line and linked to the chapter that explains it.

- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/custody-platforms#governance-and-quorum-policies)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#asu-2023-08)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#creation-and-redemption)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#creation-and-redemption)).
- **BTC Yield:** Strategy's KPI, the percentage change over a period in bitcoin per assumed diluted share ([Accounting for Crypto & Treasury Companies](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#digital-asset-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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#creation-and-redemption)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/qualified-custody#bank-custody-after-sab-121)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/qualified-custody#the-custody-rule)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#digital-asset-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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/qualified-custody#nydfs-trust-companies)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#generic-listing-standards)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#the-old-model)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#creation-and-redemption)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-prime-and-lending#institutional-credit-and-margin-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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-prime-and-lending#institutional-credit-and-margin-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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#worked-numbers-mnav)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#nav-at-4-pm)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/custody-platforms#off-exchange-settlement)).
- **Prime broker (crypto):** a firm that combines custody, multi-venue execution, settlement credit and financing for an institution ([Prime Brokerage, OTC & Crypto Lending](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-prime-and-lending#what-a-crypto-prime-broker-does)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/qualified-custody#the-custody-rule)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-prime-and-lending#tri-party-arrangements)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#sab-121-and-sab-122)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-accounting#sab-121-and-sab-122)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/custody-platforms#sub-custody)).
- **Surprise examination:** the annual unannounced verification of client assets by an independent accountant that the custody rule requires ([Qualified Custody](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/qualified-custody#the-custody-rule)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#the-custody-stack)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-etps#the-custody-stack)).
- **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](https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/crypto-prime-and-lending#tri-party-arrangements)).

---

Canonical URL: https://www.syntaqx.com/books/investing-and-digital-assets/glossary/institutional-crypto