On-chain Glossary

This page provides a quick reference glossary for many terms that are utilised in on-chain analysis.

Terminology	Synonyms	Description
Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)	Coin, Transaction Output	The accounting system at the protocol layer for blockchains like Bitcoin and Litecoin. All unspent units of the native currency are stored a list of UTXOs owned/held by user wallets/private keys. Analogy: A UTXO is somewhat equivalent to a dollar bill (e.g. $5, $10, $50 etc) although may be of any denomination of the native blockchain currency.
Spent Output	Coin moved, UTXO destruction	A UTXO destroyed by the owner by broadcasting a spending transaction to the network which is subsequently confirmed by miners/validators.
Unspent Output	Unspent coin, UTXO creation	A UTXO created and held in the owner's wallet.
Change	Change-adjusted	A UTXO that is determined by Glassnode heuristics to be the left-over change that is returned to a users wallet after a payment to another destination is made.
Address	Public Key	A public key which represents the source or destination of a blockchain payment.
Wallet	Private Key	A private key that owns all coins associated with the addresses derived from the public-private key-pair. A single wallet may own multiple addresses.
Entity	On-chain entity, Unique entity	An entity is a collection of addresses or wallets that Glassnode heuristics and labelling has determined are owned by the same unique owner. For example, a cluster of user deposit addresses maybe owned by a single exchange which would be then be defined as a unique entity.
Balance	-	Total sum of value held by a single address, entity or wallet.
Supply	-	The sum of native coin units within the specified grouping (e.g. circulating supply, supply held by wallets > 1k etc).
Value	UTXO value, Coin volume	The value held in a UTXO, account or wallet denominated in the native currency (i.e. BTC, ETH, LTC etc).
Lifespan	Age	For UTXO based chains: The accumulated time between the creation and destruction of a UTXO. For account based chains: The time since a coin was last moved.
Coin-days	CDD	The unit of Lifespan (value x time)
Dormant	Remains unspent	A descriptor indicating that a coin/UTXO has not been spent and thus is currently accumulating lifespan.
Realized	Realised value	The difference in fiat denominated value between the time when a coin was last moved (UTXO creation), and at the time when a coin is spent (UTXO destroyed).
Unrealized	Unrealized value	The difference in fiat denominated value between the time when a coin was last moved (UTXO creation), and at current price indicative of the profit/loss that would be realized if the coin were to be spent.
Short-Term Holder	STH	A cohort of on-chain entities associated with own coins that have a lifespan less than 155-days. These coins are statistically more likely to be spent.
Long-Term Holder	LTH	A cohort of on-chain entities associated with own coins that have a lifespan more than 155-days. These coins are statistically less likely to be spent.