In forex trading base currency refers to the first currency quoted in any currency pairs . Take GBP/USD currency pair for an example, the Great Britain Pound is the base currency and the U.S. dollar is the quote currency. The price represents how much of the quote currency is needed for you to get one unit of the base currency.

In accounting, “Base currency” is also considered as the domestic currency or accounting currency. For accounting purposes, a firm may use the base currency to represent all profits and losses. A US bank, for example, may have a “base currency” (accounting currency) of USD, because all profits and losses are converted to USD.

It is also sometimes referred to as the primary currency.