CoinGecko portfolio: Accurate inputs for tracking gains

Manual records, wallet tracking and watchlists

Manual portfolios use the transactions you enter, while wallet tracking reads publicly available activity for a supported address. A watchlist follows selected coins without requiring a record of ownership. These options differ primarily in where their information comes from: your entries, supported blockchain data or your selection of assets to follow.

Wallet tracking includes holdings, portfolio value and performance metrics for supported tokens. Network coverage and token support constrain what appears. Manual records allow you to represent purchases using details from your transaction history. Neither method turns the portfolio into custody: recording a purchase does not buy crypto, and a displayed holding does not create a withdrawable balance inside CoinGecko.

Record quantities and execution prices separately

A manual purchase needs an asset quantity and a price per unit that describe the same transaction. Entering the total amount spent as the unit price overstates the purchase cost whenever the quantity exceeds one unit. Decimal placement matters just as much: an incorrect quantity changes both the tracked holding and its calculated value.

The relevant price is the execution price recorded for your purchase. A market chart describes market activity over time; it does not reproduce your individual order. Likewise, the price displayed while entering an older purchase need not equal its historical execution price. Preserve the transaction date and distinguish the amount paid for the asset from any separately charged fee. Where an entry includes a fee field, check its stated currency and avoid counting a fee twice.

Keep the underlying purchase confirmation. A plausible portfolio total cannot establish that the quantity, date and cost were entered correctly.

Purchases, sales and movements between accounts

A purchase increases the acquired quantity, while a sale reduces the quantity held and records disposal proceeds. Moving existing assets between accounts that you own is a different event: the movement itself creates neither a fresh purchase nor sale proceeds. A tracker covering all those accounts should not treat the same assets as newly acquired each time they move. Transfer fees can still reduce the amount remaining. The appropriate record therefore depends on whether the portfolio represents one account or the combined holdings across your accounts.

Why does Total Cost stay unchanged after a sale?

Total Cost stays unchanged after a sale because it records purchase spending rather than the net amount remaining invested. That behavior alone does not establish an error in the sale entry or the portfolio calculation.

Inspect the quantity held and the recorded sale separately from that cumulative cost figure. Changing a correct purchase merely to make Total Cost fall would distort the historical record. The distinction becomes especially relevant after partial sales, when purchase spending remains visible alongside a smaller holding. Total Cost and the current holding value describe different things, so their difference alone need not describe performance across a history containing sales.

Reconcile token quantities before investigating valuation

Quantity mismatches usually deserve attention before price differences because an incorrect holding affects every valuation that uses it. Compare the tracked quantity with records covering the same assets and accounts. Duplicate purchases, omitted sales and movements counted as new acquisitions can each explain a discrepancy. A different market price cannot explain a different token quantity. Once quantities agree, differences in the displayed currency or the time of the price observation become relevant to the valuation comparison.

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Does a larger portfolio value mean a trading gain?

A larger portfolio value does not necessarily mean a trading gain because additional purchases also increase the holdings being valued. Performance comparisons need to separate money added from changes in asset prices. Selling assets can reduce the displayed holding value even when the sale realizes a profit. Conversely, an unrealized gain describes appreciation in assets still held. The amount ultimately received from selling them depends on the execution price and applicable costs, rather than the portfolio valuation alone.

Average net cost and remaining holdings

Average Net Cost connects the net cost figure with the quantity still held in the manual tracker. Multiplying Average Net Cost by Holdings gives Net Cost. Use these named fields together rather than substituting Total Cost, which retains the purchase-spending meaning described earlier. The distinction helps explain why two cost figures can differ without either field being broken.

An average is also a summary. It does not preserve the details of every purchase or explain every movement between accounts. Missing transactions can therefore leave an apparently reasonable average alongside an incomplete history. Retaining the individual records makes it possible to understand the number rather than treating a displayed average as proof that the history is complete.

Preserve transaction details before removing a coin

Removing a coin changes the portfolio’s tracking record; it does not sell the underlying asset or reverse a trade. The Remove coin option is therefore different from recording an actual sale. A sale belongs in the transaction history when a disposal happened. Removal concerns which coin remains in the selected portfolio.

Preserve purchase confirmations and other transaction details before removing records that you may need to reconstruct. CoinGecko’s website and mobile app do not provide a download or export of manually created portfolio transactions. Keeping a separate record is particularly useful when investigating an incorrect total or moving your tracking elsewhere. A screenshot of the overall balance captures a valuation, but it does not necessarily preserve the transactions that produced it.

Recreating a coin entry should not be treated as a promise that earlier records will return. Recovery depends on retaining the information needed to rebuild the history.