What is Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO)?

An Unspent Transaction Output (UTXO) is the amount of cryptocurrency that remains after a transaction is executed. Each UTXO represents a chain of ownership, which is represented as a chain of digital signatures in which a transaction originator signs a message transferring ownership of their UTXO to the recipient's public key. As a result, UTXOs are responsible for beginning and ending each cryptocurrency transaction.