What is crypto?
What a cryptocurrency is, whether it is an asset class, and how it differs from forex.
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Lessons
- 01What is cryptocurrency?Cryptocurrency is digital money recorded on a shared public ledger called a blockchain. A network of computers checks every transfer, and no central bank issues the coins. You control your coins with a secret private key, and the price is whatever buyers and sellers agree to trade at.
- 02Is crypto an asset class of its own?Crypto has its own markets and its own price drivers, two marks of an asset class. It differs from stocks and bonds in one basic way: most coins pay no income, so their price rests on demand alone. Some funds and investors now give it a separate slot, and whether that lasts is still debated.
- 03How is crypto different from forex?Forex is the trade of national currencies, issued by central banks and traded around the clock on weekdays. Crypto is the trade of digital coins that mostly have no central issuer, and it trades at weekends too. Crypto prices usually swing much further in a day, and you can own the coin or trade a contract on its price.