Cryptocurrencies are a form of digital currency. They can be spent or traded, but they’re not issued by central banks or stored in traditional financial institutions.

Instead, they’re decentralized. This means records of balances and transactions are’t controlled by banks or payment providers, instead they’re held by people who volunteer to keep track of everything using specialist software.

Volunteers participate because in doing so they get the opportunity to earn valuable cryptocurrency without having to pay for it.

Huge speculation on cryptocurrencies’ values has led to a boom in both the number and value of assets in the space over the last few years – peaking in November 2021 before crashing in the spring of 2022.