Fiat currency

Fiat currency is government-issued money, such as the Indian rupee, US dollar or euro, whose value comes from law and public trust rather than from being convertible into gold or another commodity. Central banks manage its supply and set interest rates, and governments declare it legal tender, meaning it must be accepted to settle debts.

In crypto, "fiat" is shorthand for ordinary money. A fiat on-ramp is any service that lets you convert rupees into crypto, such as an exchange accepting UPI or bank transfers, and an off-ramp lets you convert crypto back into rupees. Trading pairs such as BTC/INR or ETH/USD quote a crypto price in fiat.

Bitcoin was designed partly as an alternative to fiat money, with a fixed supply instead of a central bank. Stablecoins take the opposite approach and try to track a fiat currency, most often the US dollar, one-for-one.