Coingecko

Coingecko is a transaction ledger from entry to realized P&L

Coingecko is a manual crypto portfolio tracker that turns recorded buys and sells into holdings, cost metrics, and profit or loss. Add the asset actually traded, enter its executed quantity and unit price, then record later purchases or sales in the same position. Each saved line changes the balance and cost view; a sale closes part or all of the position and supplies the inputs for realized P&L. Nothing is executed on a blockchain or exchange.

Updated: 3 Aug 2026

Key takeaway: It is a crypto portfolio tracker where you log buys, read balances, adjust entries, and record sales to calculate realized P&L.

One incorrect line distorts every downstream number

The Coingecko transaction ledger is the source record for a manually tracked position. A wrong asset, reversed direction, duplicated fill, or rounded quantity flows directly into holdings, cost, and P&L.

Asset identity deserves attention when a token appears on several networks. Ethereum Mainnet uses chain ID 1, Base uses 8453, and Polygon PoS uses 137. USDC also exists across Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum One, Solana, and other networks. The portfolio listing may consolidate market data, while an exchange statement or wallet record still identifies where the units came from. Preserve that detail outside the tracker when it matters to reconciliation.

Direction errors produce the largest immediate distortion. A buy increases tracked units; a sell reduces them. A completed exit should leave 0 units, while a negative or unexpectedly large balance signals that the history no longer matches the position. Correct the source transaction before interpreting any return percentage because every downstream calculation inherits that line.

Manual entries, wallet tracking, or a spreadsheet?

Manual transaction tracking works best when the user wants direct control over which buys and sells form a position. Coingecko's manual portfolio records selected activity without requiring exchange credentials, while its separate wallet-tracking mode reads supported public addresses without a signing prompt or wallet approval.

Those mechanisms answer different questions. A public-address view reflects supported on-chain balances and activity on networks such as Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum One, and BNB Chain. Manual entries also cover trades executed through Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, or another centralized venue because the user supplies the execution details. In either mode, the tracker requests 0 custody transfers and creates 0 exchange orders.

Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel offer more control over formulas and export. A basic spreadsheet ledger needs at least 4 core columns: asset, direction, quantity, and executed unit price, with date and notes added for reconciliation. Koinly is oriented toward imported histories and tax workflows. The portfolio interface is leaner: use it for monitoring positions, then retain venue statements when a complete portable ledger is required.

A buy entry establishes quantity and cost

A buy transaction creates the position's tracked quantity and acquisition cost. The reliable input is the completed execution from the exchange or decentralized exchange, rather than the market price visible when the entry is typed.

1. Open the exact asset listing and choose the intended portfolio.
2. Select a buy transaction and enter the execution date.
3. Copy the filled quantity from the venue or wallet record.
4. Enter the executed price per unit in the selected reporting currency.
5. Save the line and compare the resulting holdings with the source balance.

Unit precision explains why copied quantities matter. Bitcoin has 8 decimal places, and 1 BTC equals 100,000,000 satoshis. Ether uses 18 decimal places, with 10 ¹⁸ wei in 1 ETH. Solana represents 1 SOL as 1,000,000,000 lamports, giving SOL 9 decimal places at its native-unit level. Native USDC follows 6-decimal precision, while other ERC-20 and SPL Token assets use the decimals configured by their contracts or mints.

Do not round the source quantity merely because a dashboard displays fewer digits. A small remainder persists through every later sale. Purchases accumulated over time should remain separate entries when their execution prices differ, allowing the transaction history to preserve how the weighted position developed.

Sales reduce holdings without reducing Total Cost

A sell transaction reduces recorded holdings and turns part of the position into realized activity. Total Cost and Average Net Cost then describe different parts of the lifecycle, so they should not be read as interchangeable cost-basis labels.

Coingecko defines Total Cost as the overall amount spent on purchases, so a sell transaction does not reduce that displayed figure. Total Cost therefore retains 100% of cumulative recorded purchase spending after a partial exit. Net Cost is obtained by multiplying Average Net Cost by current Holdings. A sale of 50% of the units halves the quantity when no other entries intervene, yet the original purchase-spend total remains visible.

Realized P&L is sale proceeds minus the cost assigned to the units sold. The transaction log supplies the quantity, entry prices, and sale value needed for that calculation. Tax-lot methods such as FIFO or specific identification introduce separate accounting rules, so the dashboard's monitoring figures should not be treated as a jurisdiction-specific tax ledger.

Editing history recalculates the position

A transaction correction should repair the original source line because holdings and cost metrics are derived from the full history. Open the asset's transaction history, change or replace the incorrect entry, and then compare the recalculated quantity with the venue record.

Adding a synthetic sell to offset an oversized buy creates activity that never occurred and contaminates realized P&L. Likewise, entering 1 completed fill twice produces 2 acquisitions, doubling both quantity and purchase spending. Correct the duplicated or mistyped line itself. When an order contains multiple partial fills at different prices, retain those fills separately or use their exact weighted execution price if consolidating them into one entry.

Review the position after every correction. Holdings should match the units still owned, Total Cost should match cumulative recorded purchases, and the sale history should match completed disposals. That three-part reconciliation catches most data-entry drift before another transaction compounds it.

Two buys and one sale: a worked BTC position

The worked BTC example below uses hypothetical changing inputs throughout. The hypothetical first buy input is 0.20 BTC at $20,000 per BTC, the hypothetical second buy input is 0.10 BTC at $30,000, and the hypothetical fee input is $0 for both purchases. The buys cost $4,000 and $3,000, producing 0.30 BTC of holdings, $7,000 of Total Cost, and a weighted average purchase cost of $23,333.33 per BTC.

The other half of this is described in Coingecko api. The hypothetical sale input is 0.12 BTC at $35,000, again with a hypothetical fee input of $0. Sale proceeds equal $4,200, and remaining holdings equal 0.18 BTC. Under weighted-average allocation, the sold 0.12 BTC carries $2,800 of cost, so realized P&L is $4,200 minus $2,800, or $1,400. The remaining weighted cost is $4,200.

In Coingecko, Total Cost still reads $7,000 because the field preserves cumulative purchase spending. Subtracting recorded sale proceeds from that spend gives $2,800 of net cost; dividing it by 0.18 BTC produces an Average Net Cost of $15,555.56 per remaining BTC. Weighted purchase cost and Average Net Cost diverge after the sale because one allocates acquisition cost while the other incorporates recovered proceeds.

Who gains the most from a transaction-led portfolio?

Transaction-led portfolio tracking suits positions whose buys and sells remain manageable enough to enter accurately. Coingecko fits a holder who wants one consolidated balance for activity spread across Coinbase, Kraken, Binance, or Uniswap without granting trading authority to the tracker.

The workflow also separates observation from custody. MetaMask, Phantom, an exchange account, or a hardware wallet continues to hold the assets; the manual portfolio holds only records. Logging a transaction creates 0 blockchain transactions and requires 0 cryptographic signatures. Price changes then update the marked value of the remaining quantity, while recorded sales preserve the position's exit history.

High-frequency histories and formal accounting demand a portable source ledger. Built-in portfolio transactions are not available for download or export, so exchange statements, wallet records, and explorer data should remain the durable archive. Used within that boundary, the tracker provides a clear lifecycle: record the entry, read the balance, correct the source line when necessary, and record the final sale until holdings reach zero.