Crypto positions are easy to misjudge because the amount you invested and the number of coins you hold are two different things, and only one of them is on your screen. This calculator starts from the numbers you actually know: what you paid per coin, what the coin is worth now, and how much money you put in. From that it works out how many coins that money bought, what the position is worth today, the profit or loss in dollars, and the percentage return. Because the price field is pre-filled from a live market feed, you can also leave it alone and simply ask the more useful question — where does my position stand right now?
The mechanics are simple but worth being precise about. Your coin quantity is the amount invested divided by your buy price, and it does not change when the market moves. What changes is the value of that fixed quantity. Profit is therefore current value minus the amount invested, and the percentage return is identical to the percentage move in the coin price itself — which is why a position can look dramatic in percentage terms and modest in dollars, or the reverse.
Averaged entries need one extra step. If you bought in several times at different prices, use your average cost per coin rather than any single purchase price: add up every dollar you invested and divide by the total number of coins you hold. Feeding a single lucky entry price into the calculator will flatter the result and make an exit decision look better than it is.
Fees and spreads are not included in the raw formula, and on active trading they are not trivial. Exchange trading fees, the spread you crossed, and network fees on withdrawals all reduce a real result compared with the arithmetic. A pragmatic approach is to run the calculation, then knock a small percentage off the profit line to represent round-trip costs before deciding whether an exit is worthwhile.
Use this calculator before closing a position — not just after. Running the projected P&L at the current price tells you the exact net amount you would receive after fees and estimated taxes, which is what actually matters. It is also essential for anyone comparing crypto returns against other investment vehicles: the annualised CAGR figure puts a two-month gain and a two-year hold on the same comparable scale.
The most expensive calculation error is ignoring fees when computing cost basis. If you pay a 0.1% buy fee on a $50,000 entry, your true cost basis is $50,050 — and that $50 matters at scale when running many trades. For tax purposes, using the wrong cost basis method (e.g., FIFO versus specific identification) can produce significantly different tax liabilities on the same underlying positions. Keep transaction records with timestamps and exact prices.
A trader buys 2 ETH at $1,800 (total $3,600, plus 0.1% fee = $3,603.60 cost basis). Three months later, sells both at $2,400 (gross $4,800, minus 0.1% exit fee = $4,795.20 proceeds). Net profit: $1,191.60. ROI: 33.1%. Annualised: approximately 132%. Estimated UK CGT at 20%: $238.32. Without the calculator, most traders round to 'about $1,200 profit' and miss both the fee drag and the tax liability — both of which need to be accounted for before reinvesting proceeds.
Crypto profit, current value and percentage return
Coins = Amount invested ÷ Buy price
Current value = Coins × Current price
Profit = Current value − Amount invested
Return % = ((Current price − Buy price) ÷ Buy price) × 100
Your coin quantity is fixed at the moment of purchase, so all later movement shows up in the value line. Because profit is proportional to that fixed quantity, the percentage return equals the percentage change in the coin price — the amount invested scales the dollar result but not the percentage. Fees and spread are excluded.
You invest $5,000 in Bitcoin at an average price of $25,000 per coin. Bitcoin later trades at $40,000.
Result: Unrealised profit $3,000 — a 60% return on the $5,000 invested
Divide the amount you invested by your buy price to get your coin quantity, multiply that quantity by the current price to get today's value, then subtract what you invested. The calculator performs all three steps from the amount invested.
Yes. The maths is price-based, not coin-specific, so it works for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana or any altcoin. The coin selector simply pre-fills a live price for the larger coins.
There is no benchmark comparable to the long-run stock market average, because volatility is far higher. What matters more is whether the return justifies the drawdown risk you accepted along the way, and whether it survives fees and tax.
Work out your average cost per coin: total dollars invested divided by total coins held. Enter that as the buy price and enter the total amount invested. The result then reflects the whole position rather than one entry.
No. The formula uses prices and the amount invested only. Exchange fees, spread and withdrawal costs typically remove a fraction of a percent to a couple of percent from a round trip, so treat the profit line as slightly optimistic.