Cryptocurrency
A digital asset secured by cryptography that can be transferred between people without a bank in the middle.
Cryptocurrency is digital money that moves directly between people, with no bank sitting in the middle. The "crypto" part refers to cryptography, the maths that proves who owns what and stops anyone forging a balance.
Ownership works through keys. Each holder has a private code that authorises spending and a public address others can send to. Lose the private code and you lose the funds, because there is no bank branch to ring and no password reset. That responsibility shifts onto you.
Balances and transfers are recorded on a blockchain, a shared ledger that thousands of computers keep in sync. When you send coins, the network checks you actually have them before the payment clears. Nobody needs to trust you, and you do not need to trust them. The record settles the dispute.
Bitcoin was the first, launched in 2009. Thousands have followed since. Any coin other than Bitcoin gets lumped together as an altcoin, from large networks like Ethereum down to tiny experimental tokens.
The category covers very different things. Some coins aim to be money. Some power applications. Some track the value of a national currency to stay flat. They share one trait: they run on open networks rather than a private company's servers.
Prices can swing hard, sometimes double digits in a single day. That volatility is the headline risk, and it works in both directions. Banxa has operated as a regulated on-ramp since 2014, letting people in 100-plus countries convert ordinary money into crypto using more than 100 everyday payment methods.