digital currency

[dij-i-tl kur-uhn-see, kuhr-]

noun

1. any form of money or similar asset that exists only in electronic form, with management, storage, and exchange happening exclusively on computer systems.

   Players can wager bitcoin and other digital currencies on sporting events, casino games, and online tournaments.

Usage

There are numerous terms for money available only in nonphysical forms, and each has a slightly different scope. Digital currency is the broadest label, covering any kind of money or money-like asset that only has an electronic form. Some digital currencies are also virtual currencies, which are distinguished by being unregulated, issued by private individuals such as the developers of the currency, and generally localized to a particular community. Virtual currencies include tokens you can buy in online games, but they also include cryptocurrencies, which are distinguished by their decentralized trading networks and their use of advanced cryptography for security. The first widely adopted cryptocurrency was bitcoin, and all other cryptocurrencies are sometimes called altcoins. Another type of digital currency is a CBDC, or central bank digital currency. These are electronic-only versions of national currencies, such as China's digital yuan, and they are regulated by the same central bank that regulates the nondigital money supply in that country. A central bank digital currency is different from money stored electronically in an online bank account, because CBDCs are only issued and traded electronically, with no physical form.

Word History and Origins

Origin of digital currency¹

First recorded in 1990–95

Example Sentences

The digital currency would operate outside Swift but still have access to American banks.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Unlike private payment systems like PayPal or Alipay, a central-bank digital currency allows the issuer to see every transaction in real time and even decide how that money can be spent.

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Expanding this sort of digital currency system to other regimes could allow China to chip away at U.S. financial dominance by creating a parallel system immune to Western sanctions.

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The CPS has recovered 42 Bitcoin and other digital currency in total from him.

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The value of most stablecoins -- a form of digital currency linked to real-world money -- is kept steady by being linked overwhelmingly to the dollar.

Read more on Barron's