Fiat Currency
Government-issued money backed by decree rather than a commodity — the dollars and euros crypto is priced in.
Fiat currency is money that a government declares legal tender, unbacked by any physical commodity: dollars, euros, yen. Its value rests on trust in the issuing institution and the economy behind it. In crypto, “fiat” marks the border — fiat on-ramps, fiat pairs, fiat settlement.
Crypto exists largely as a response to fiat’s central property: supply is elastic and politically managed. Whether that elasticity is a feature (crisis response) or a bug (debasement) is the philosophical fault line under the entire asset class. Practically, stablecoins are fiat’s digital ambassadors inside crypto — try converting between the two worlds with our converter.