cryptocurrencyn.
/ˈkrɪptəʊˌkʌrənsi/, /ˈkrɪptəʊˌkʌrn̩si/, U.S. /ˈkrɪpˌtoʊˌkərənsi/ 1. An informal, substitute currency. rare.
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society > trade and finance > money > medium of exchange or currency > [noun] > types of currency
soft currency1837
fiat-money1880
token coinage1881
token-money1889
token currency1893
monopoly money1895
hard currency1940
soft currency1940
reserve currency1950
petrocurrency1974
cryptocurrency1991
commodity dollar1998
1991 Hyperinflation & YO in sci.econ (Usenet newsgroup) 2 Apr. In Poland the bottle of vodka has long been pegged at one US dollar in foreign currency shops. So you have a stabilised crypto-currency, rather like cigarettes in 1945 Berlin.
2. Any of various digital payment systems operating independently of a central authority and employing cryptographic techniques to control and verify transactions in a unique unit of account; (also) the units of account of such a system, considered collectively.The earliest digital cryptocurrency was Bitcoin: see Bitcoin n. at bit n.4 Additions.
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2009 @hxn 23 Sept. in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive) This is really interesting: bitcoin, the p2p cryptocurrency.
2014 Atlantic Oct. 24/4 Dogespeak started spreading on Reddit and Tumblr in 2012. It's since inspired a cryptocurrency, Dogecoin.
2017 Fortune (Electronic ed.) 26 Sept. What happens to cryptocurrency when you die?..This attribute [sc. unbreakable cryptography] makes it a secure way to store wealth but also creates the risk that when Bitcoin owners die, their digital fortune will be out of reach forever.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2019; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1991