Bitcoin & Mining

Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)

Also: UTXO

How Bitcoin tracks ownership: instead of account balances, the network records chunks of coin that have been received but not yet spent. A wallet's balance is the sum of its UTXOs. Spending one consumes it and creates new ones, like paying with a bill and receiving change.

General education, not investment, legal or tax advice. Markets and regulation change quickly: where a definition depends on current law or on a recent event, check the latest coverage before relying on it.