Ticker Symbol

A ticker symbol is the short code used to label an asset on a venue or a chart. It is a display convention, not an identifier: nothing prevents two unrelated projects from using the same letters, and nothing prevents anyone from issuing a token that carries the ticker of a well-known asset on any chain that allows free issuance. The same short code can therefore refer to a genuine asset on one venue, an unrelated project on another, and an imitation on a decentralised exchange, all at once. What identifies an asset is the contract address on the chain in question, or the chain itself in the case of a native coin — the ticker merely labels it. Two practical consequences follow: a token's name and symbol are usually fields the issuer chose and can be anything at all, and a ticker matching between two places proves nothing about the two being the same thing.