How to track your crypto DCA for real: contributions, cost basis and returns

A DCA calculator tells you what dollar cost averaging would have returned. It doesn’t tell you how yours is doing, with your real buys, fees and transfers. Here is how to track it month after month, and what 35 months of a real bitcoin DCA actually show.

By William October 16, 2026 · 5 min read

A calendar of twelve squares each holding the same bitcoin coin, next to a value line that swings around a dashed line of steady contributions, green above it and red below.

A crypto DCA tracker is not a DCA calculator. DCA (dollar cost averaging) means buying the same amount at regular intervals. A calculator tells you what it would have returned. A tracker tells you where yours stands, with your real buys, your fees and your transfers. Because you keep adding money, the value almost always rises: you have to separate your money from your gains.

A real DCA in numbers: 35 months of bitcoin

The example is the Crypto Master demo portfolio: $150 of bitcoin on the last day of every month, from October 2023 to August 2026, at actual closing prices, with no fees. 35 buys, $5,250 invested.

Two charts over 35 months: at the top, the value of the bitcoin bought swings around the line of total contributions, up 80% in July 2025, down 16% in June 2026 and up 11.8% in August 2026; at the bottom, the cost basis climbs from $34,640 to about $70,750, then dips slightly once the price falls below it — $150 a month for 35 months: up 80%, then down 16%, ending up 11.8%.

Date	Invested	Value	Gain
07/31/2025	$3,300	$5,941	+80.0%
06/30/2026	$4,950	$4,150	−16.2%
08/31/2026	$5,250	$5,871	+11.8%

Nearly doubled in July 2025, the money was at a loss eleven months later, while bitcoin was still 70% higher than in October 2023. The buys made near the top weigh as much as the others, and they pulled the cost basis up.

Spreadsheet formulas to track your crypto DCA

One row per purchase. You type in columns A to D, the rest is calculated.

The DCA tracker in a spreadsheet: Date, Invested, Fees and Price typed in, then Quantity, Total quantity, Total invested, Cost basis, Value, Gain and Month performance calculated, with the formulas of row 3 and the first three and last three rows of the example — Columns E to K are calculated: copy row 3 down.

Column	Contents	Formula (row 3)
E	Quantity bought	`=(B3-C3)/D3`
F	Total quantity	`=SUM($E$2:E3)`
G	Total invested	`=SUM($B$2:B3)`
H	Cost basis	`=G3/F3`
I	Value	`=F3*D3`
J	Gain	`=I3/G3-1`
K	Month performance	`=(I3-I2-B3)/I2`

The amount invested (B) includes fees. Your cost basis per coin (your average purchase price, fees included) is therefore G3/F3.

Cost basis across several platforms is covered in the crypto cost basis guide. To track every coin in one file, start from the free crypto portfolio tracker spreadsheet.

A DCA doesn’t always lower your cost basis

You often read that DCA “brings your average price down”. That’s only true when the price drops below your cost basis. As long as you buy above it, every purchase pushes it up.

In the example, the cost basis went from $34,640 to $70,754 in January 2026. It only dipped after that, once bitcoin fell below it, ending at $70,270. DCA gives you the average price over the period, and that average rises with the market.

A month’s return is measured net of contributions

A month’s value includes the money you added, which isn’t a gain. June 2026, in the example: the value went from $5,002.83 to $4,150.28, after another $150 put in.

The value fell 17.0%.
Your money lost 20.0%: (4,150.28 − 5,002.83 − 150) ÷ 5,002.83.

In August 2026, it’s the other way round: the value jumps 26.5%, the month’s return is only 23.2%.

Annualized return: use XIRR, not total gain

The +11.8% gain wasn’t made over three years: on average, your money was invested for 17 months. Excel’s XIRR function, which also exists in Google Sheets, works out an annual rate from dated cash flows:

in column L, enter each contribution as a negative number: =-B2;
add a last row, dated today, with the current value as a positive number;
type =XIRR(L2:L37,A2:A37).

In the example: +8.0% a year, roughly what 11.8% earned over 17 months on average works out to.

My own DCA, and where a spreadsheet breaks

From mid-November 2023 to the end of February 2024, I made 99 bitcoin buys of $15 to $30 in USDT in the Crypto.com app. Bitcoin went from $35,800 to $54,600, for a cost basis of about $43,900. Today, those coins are worth 90% more. Here is where the spreadsheet broke:

volume: 99 rows to copy in, and one missing row skews your cost basis without anything flagging it;
a DCA paid in stablecoins has two prices: I had bought my USDT with euros, and that conversion needs a second sheet;
money deposited isn’t money invested: whatever is left of a transfer just sits on the exchange. Count the deposits or the buys, never both;
moving coins to a wallet isn’t selling: a value based on the exchange balance collapses with every transfer;
staking adds coins without a contribution: counted at $0, rewards lower your cost basis, a choice you have to stick to.

What Crypto Master does instead

Crypto Master reads your accounts without retyping anything: exchanges through read-only API keys or file imports, wallets through their public address. My 99 buys came in through the Crypto.com app file import. It’s up to date every time you open it.

Its Evolution page compares net contributions and value month by month, and its Performance column takes contributions out. Each coin’s page shows the bag’s value against its cost. Cost basis covers all your accounts, and transfers between them are not counted as purchases.

Evolution page of the Crypto Master demo, over the last twelve months: net contributions rise by €250 every month, the portfolio value moves up and down, and the Performance column ranges from −16.9% in November 2025 to +19.2% in August 2026 — The Performance column takes contributions out: June 2026 shows −14.6% for the whole demo portfolio.

The “Bag value and net contribution” chart for bitcoin in the demo: the cumulative contribution rises as a dashed line and falls back with each sale, as in June 2025; the value runs above it in 2024 and 2025, dips below it in spring 2026, then climbs back above it in summer 2026 — The demo’s bitcoin DCA, in dollars of each period.

The free plan covers 3 connected accounts and 500 transactions, and you can open the demo without creating an account.

What about taxes?

In most countries, including the US and France, buying crypto with cash isn’t a taxable event. Selling is, and the taxable gain follows your country’s rules, not necessarily your DCA’s cost basis.

In the US, a DCA leaves one tax lot per buy, each with its own date, and that date decides short or long term. Crypto Master tracks those lots account by account, first-in first-out by default, and lays them out for Form 8949.

Frequently asked questions

How do I calculate the cost basis of a crypto DCA?

Divide the total invested, fees included, by the total quantity bought: =SUM(B:B)/SUM(E:E) in this article’s spreadsheet.

How do I calculate my DCA returns?

Your total gain is current value ÷ total invested − 1. Your annualized return comes from XIRR.

Does DCA lower your average buy price?

Only when you buy below your cost basis. Above it, every buy pushes it up.

What’s the difference between a DCA calculator and a DCA tracker?

A calculator replays theoretical buys. A tracker starts from your real buys, with your fees, skipped months and transfers.

Should I include fees in my DCA?

Yes. They go into the total invested, and so into the cost basis.

Is a crypto DCA taxable?

Buying usually isn’t, selling is. The taxable gain follows your country’s rules, not your DCA spreadsheet.

See a 35-month DCA tracked month by month, contributions and value side by side, on a made-up portfolio and without creating an account.

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