Bitcoin & Treasury Glossary
54 essential terms of the corporate Bitcoin ecosystem — valuation metrics, treasury mechanics, protocol basics and regulation — explained clearly by the SatsIntel research team.
Metric
ATH
All-Time High: the highest price an asset has ever reached.
ATL
All-Time Low: the lowest price an asset has ever reached.
BTC per Share
Bitcoin per fully diluted share: the denominator of BTC Yield.
BTC Yield
Treasury performance metric: the change in BTC per fully diluted share.
mNAV
Multiple on Net Asset Value: how a treasury company trades relative to its BTC.
NAV
Net Asset Value: the net value of the assets of a fund, ETF or treasury company. In Bitcoin terms, the BTC on the balance sheet multiplied by its market price.
Premium / Discount
The percentage gap between a company's share price and its BTC NAV.
Volatility
The magnitude of Bitcoin's price swings over a given period.
Treasury
Balance Sheet Bitcoin
BTC recorded as an asset on a company's balance sheet.
Bitcoin Treasury Policy
A board-approved internal framework defining how, how much, and under what rules a company acquires, custodies, and reports the Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Corporate Treasury
A company that adopts Bitcoin as a primary or significant balance-sheet asset.
HODL
The strategy of holding Bitcoin long term without selling, regardless of price.
Pure-Play Treasury
A listed company whose single, central thesis is accumulating Bitcoin on its balance sheet.
Scarcity
A fixed maximum supply of 21 million Bitcoin, impossible to alter under the current protocol.
Strategic Reserve
Bitcoin accumulated by companies or governments as a long-term reserve asset.
Finance
ATM Offering
At-the-market equity issuance used by treasury companies to fund BTC purchases.
Callable
A clause allowing the issuer to redeem a preferred stock at par from a specified date onward.
Capital Structure
The mix of debt, preferred stock and common equity that funds a company.
Convertible Debt
A bond that can be converted into common shares under certain conditions.
Cumulative Dividend
Unpaid preferred dividends that keep accruing and must be paid before any distribution to common stock.
Dilution
The reduction in a shareholder's ownership percentage when new shares are issued.
Fair Value
Accounting valuation of an asset at real-time market price.
GBTC
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust: the first BTC investment vehicle for institutional investors in the US.
Pari Passu
Latin phrase indicating equal ranking in priority between two or more financial instruments.
Perpetual Preferred
Fixed-income instrument with no maturity that pays a fixed dividend, ranking ahead of common shareholders.
Pristine Collateral
Top-quality collateral: liquid, free of counterparty risk, and with no possibility of default. Bitcoin aspires to be digital pristine collateral.
Senior / Junior
The priority hierarchy in the capital structure: who gets paid first in a liquidation.
Spot Price
The current market price of Bitcoin for immediate delivery.
Protocol
BIP
Bitcoin Improvement Proposal: a formal proposal to change the Bitcoin protocol.
Cold Storage
Storing Bitcoin in wallets with no internet connection.
Crypto Custody
Safekeeping the private keys to Bitcoin or other cryptoassets — either yourself (self-custody) or through a professional provider accountable for their security.
Genesis Block
The first block in the Bitcoin chain, mined by Satoshi Nakamoto on January 3, 2009.
Halving
The halving of the mining reward every 210,000 blocks (~4 years).
Layer 2
A scaling layer built on top of Bitcoin that inherits its security to process more transactions.
Lightning Network
Layer 2 for instant payments on top of Bitcoin, designed for low-cost transactions.
Mempool
The queue of transactions awaiting confirmation on the Bitcoin network.
Multi-Sig
Custody scheme requiring multiple private keys to authorize a transaction.
Proof of Work
Bitcoin's consensus mechanism: miners compete to solve complex mathematical problems.
Satoshi (sat)
The smallest unit of Bitcoin: 0.00000001 BTC (one hundred-millionth).
SegWit
Soft fork activated in August 2017 that separates signatures from the transaction body and increases effective block capacity.
Self-Custody
Direct control of Bitcoin private keys without relying on a third party.
Taproot
Bitcoin upgrade (2021) improving privacy, efficiency, and smart contracts.
UTXO
Unspent Transaction Output: the basic accounting unit of the Bitcoin blockchain.
Mining
Regulation
'Plusvalía del Muerto' (Spanish Inheritance Step-Up)
A Spanish tax advantage of inheriting versus gifting: the appreciation of a deceased person's assets (including their Bitcoin) is not taxed in the deceased's income tax.
Bitcoin ETF
An exchange-traded fund that tracks the price of BTC without requiring investors to custody Bitcoin directly.
Crypto-to-Crypto Swap (Spanish Taxation)
Under Spanish tax law, swapping one crypto for another (e.g., Bitcoin for Ethereum) is a taxable exchange: it triggers a capital gain or loss even if you never touch euros.
Digital Asset Audit
Independent verification of an entity's Bitcoin holdings: their existence, ownership (control of the keys), and valuation.
Exit Tax (Spain)
A Spanish tax on unrealized gains when moving tax residency out of Spain (Article 95 bis of the IRPF law), potentially applicable to your cryptoassets depending on the case.
FASB (Bitcoin Accounting)
The U.S. accounting standard requiring Bitcoin to be measured at fair value, with gains and losses recognized in earnings.
MiCA
Markets in Crypto-Assets: the European Union's regulatory framework for digital assets, in force since 2024.
Modelo 721 (Spanish Crypto Reporting Form)
Spain's informational filing for crypto held abroad: mandatory when combined holdings exceed €50,000 as of December 31.