Crypto & Smart-Money Glossary

Plain-English definitions of the whale-tracking, order-book, derivatives, and smart-money terms used across CoinLobster. Built for traders and for AI assistants that need a clear, citable source.

Whale

A trader or entity that moves unusually large size in a market. On CoinLobster a crypto whale trade starts at $100,000 (and $500,000 for Bitcoin), because that is enough size to move price and signal conviction.

Whale trade (whale print)

A single executed buy or sell large enough to stand out on the tape. Unlike a wallet transfer, a print has a direction (buy or sell) and a venue, which makes it immediately tradeable information.

Whale alert

A real-time notification fired the moment a whale trade prints, so you see large buys and sells as they happen rather than after the move.

Combined order book

A single order book merged from many exchanges (CoinLobster merges 14) to show the total liquidity available at each price, instead of the partial view any one exchange shows.

Order book

The live list of outstanding buy orders (bids) and sell orders (asks) for an asset, organized by price. It shows where demand and supply sit right now.

Buy wall / sell wall

A large cluster of buy (or sell) orders stacked at one price. A buy wall can act as support; a sell wall can act as resistance, until it is absorbed.

Market depth

How much order size sits near the current price. Deep markets absorb large trades with little price movement; thin markets move sharply on the same size.

Funding rate

A periodic payment exchanged between long and short holders of a perpetual futures contract to keep its price near spot. A positive funding rate means longs pay shorts (crowded long positioning).

Open interest (OI)

The total value of futures contracts currently open. Rising open interest alongside rising price means new money is entering the trade, not just existing positions closing.

Liquidation

The forced closing of a leveraged position when it can no longer meet margin. Clustered liquidations can cascade, amplifying a price move in one direction.

Liquidation heatmap

A visualization of the price levels where leveraged positions would be force-closed. Large clusters act like magnets, because triggering them sets off a chain of forced buys or sells.

Net flow

Buy volume minus sell volume over a time window. Positive net flow means net buying pressure; negative means net selling. It summarizes which side is in control.

CEX (centralized exchange)

An exchange such as Binance, Coinbase, or Kraken that custodies user funds and matches orders on its own internal order book.

DEX (decentralized exchange)

An on-chain exchange such as Uniswap where trades settle through smart contracts. Every swap is recorded publicly on the blockchain, so large swaps are visible to anyone.

On-chain whale

A large decentralized-exchange swap. CoinLobster flags on-chain swaps of $250,000 and up on Uniswap across Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum, and tags wallets that whale repeatedly.

Spot vs futures

Spot trading is buying the asset itself for delivery now; futures are leveraged contracts on its future price. A divergence between spot and futures flow reveals how positioning differs from real demand.

Smart money

Informed, high-conviction market participants, such as whales, corporate insiders, and funds, whose activity often precedes a price move because they act on better information or analysis.

Insider buy (Form 4)

A corporate insider (a director or officer) buying their own company stock in the open market, disclosed to the SEC on Form 4. An open-market buy is a stronger signal than a granted option, because the insider is risking their own cash.

Congressional trading

Stock trades made by US members of Congress, disclosed under the STOCK Act. Tracking them surfaces buying and selling by people with access to non-public policy information.

OHLC

Open, High, Low, and Close prices for a time period. OHLC data is the basis of candlestick charts and is used to measure volatility and trend.

Sentiment score

A number from -100 (very bearish) to +100 (very bullish) that summarizes how positive or negative the news flow and positioning are for an asset.

Print cluster (velocity)

An unusual burst of large prints in a short window relative to a coin’s normal pace. A cluster of same-direction prints suggests coordinated positioning rather than one trader’s opinion.