13Reference

Glossary

These definitions are the ones Silo's interface, analytics, and documentation are all expected to use. Several of the terms have looser meanings elsewhere in DeFi, and where they differ, the definition given here is the one that applies.

v4 hook: A contract Uniswap v4 calls during pool operations. Silo's hook implements the entire bin model inside those callbacks.
Active bin: The price bin where the market is currently trading.
Base asset: The tokenized asset a market exists to trade. Prices are expressed in the quote asset per unit of the base asset.
Bin step: The proportional distance between neighboring price bins, fixed when a market is created. A step of 25 basis points places each bin 0.25% above the one below it.
Composition: The current split of a position between the base asset and the quote asset, which changes as the market trades through its bins.
Concentrated liquidity: Capital placed within selected ranges rather than across an extremely wide curve.
Corporate action: A change to the underlying asset such as a split, distribution, or merger. It alters what a token represents and is handled by the issuer, not by Silo.
Divergence: The gap between a market's onchain price and its external reference price.
Dynamic fee: A fee that can change according to configured market conditions and risk inputs.
Flash accounting: The Uniswap v4 mechanism that nets balances across a transaction and requires settlement only at the end, rather than moving tokens at every step.
Impermanent loss: The difference between an LP position and simply holding the assets, caused by changing relative prices and pool rebalancing.
Liquidity bin: A discrete price level containing assets available for trading.
Liquidity depth: The amount that can be traded before execution moves beyond a stated percentage. Depth is directional, and it is not the same measurement as TVL.
Liquidity position: An LP's deposited assets, selected range, bin distribution, and accrued fees.
Liquidity provider: A user or organization that supplies assets so traders can exchange them.
LP APR: A fee-based estimate of return, derived from a stated window and method. It is an extrapolation rather than a rate the market has committed to.
Market maker: A participant that continuously supplies buy-side, sell-side, or two-sided liquidity.
NAV: Net asset value, a reference commonly used for funds, credit products, and other RWAs.
Out of range: The state of a position when the market is trading outside the bins it funds. It earns no fees and holds a single asset until price returns.
PoolManager: The Uniswap v4 singleton contract that owns settlement, flash accounting, and the pool registry for every pool built on it.
Price impact: The difference between the quoted price and the realized price, caused by a trade crossing bins. Inside a single bin the price is constant.
Protocol-owned liquidity: Liquidity capital economically owned by Silo rather than external LPs.
Quote asset: The asset a market's prices are expressed in, and the asset a position holds when the market trades above its range.
Range: The span of bins a position covers, from its lowest funded price level to its highest.
Reference price: An external market, oracle, or NAV value used for context or risk controls.
Repositioning: Withdrawing a position and opening a new one over a different range. It settles the current composition, and the new range is chosen from the current price rather than the original one.
RWA: A real-world asset represented or referenced onchain, such as an equity, Treasury, fund, credit instrument, or commodity.
Single-sided liquidity: A position funded with only one of the two assets in a market.
Slippage tolerance: The movement between quote and execution a trader accepts before a trade should fail rather than fill at a worse price.
Stock Token: An onchain token designed to provide specified economic exposure to a stock. Its exact rights depend on the issuer's terms.
Trading fee: The fee a trader pays to access pool liquidity, credited to the bins the trade used and shared among the positions funding them.
TVL: Total value locked, meaning the value of all assets supplied to protocol contracts.
Volume: The total value of trades executed through a market during a stated period.

Language Silo avoids

Some phrases carry promises the protocol cannot make. These are replaced with precise alternatives wherever they appear.

Guaranteed APYUse a fee-based estimate with its window and method stated.

Risk-freeNot used. Every position carries market, contract, and issuer risk.

Instant redemptionDescribe the actual redemption path and who operates it.

Owning the stockUse "tokenized stock exposure" or "Stock Tokens", because rights depend on the issuer.

Fully backedOnly where the specific asset and mechanism have been independently verified.

What these five phrases share is that each converts an uncertain outcome into a stated fact. Some may even be true of a particular asset at a particular moment, which is exactly what makes them tempting. The problem is that they are read as properties of the protocol rather than as claims about one market at one time, and no protocol-level version of any of them holds.

How these terms are used

The glossary is normative for product surfaces, not only for documentation. Where a term here differs from common usage elsewhere in DeFi, this definition is the one the interface should follow, so that a number labeled "TVL" or "LP APR" in one place means the same thing everywhere.

In the interfaceUse the term exactly as defined here, with the same capitalization.

In analyticsState the measurement window alongside any derived figure.

In marketingNever substitute a broader term for a narrower one to make a number sound larger.

Consistency matters most where it is least convenient. A number labeled TVL on a marketing page has to mean what TVL means here, even where a broader definition would produce a larger figure, and a figure described as an APR has to carry its window even when the window is short and the number flattering. A vocabulary that holds only when it is advantageous is not a vocabulary.