Peg
A fixed target value an asset is designed to track — most commonly a stablecoin's $1, held by reserves or mechanism.
A peg is the reference value an asset commits to maintaining. For stablecoins that’s usually $1; for a wrapped or liquid-staking token it’s a 1:1 tie to the underlying. The peg holds through some combination of redeemable reserves and arbitrage: when price drifts, traders profit by pushing it back, provided redemption actually works.
A peg is a promise, not a law of nature — it holds only as long as the backing and confidence behind it hold. A depeg reveals which: reserve-backed pegs usually snap back after panic clears, while mechanism-only pegs can break permanently. “How exactly is this peg defended, and can I redeem at par?” is the question that separates safe pegs from time bombs.