Calculate net profit or loss on a cryptocurrency trade after exchange fees.
Gross P&L = (Sell price − Buy price) × Quantity. Net P&L = Gross P&L − (buy fee + sell fee).
Educational tool only — not investment advice. Markets involve risk; past performance and illustrative math don't guarantee future results.
Crypto profit and loss splits cleanly into two categories that get confused constantly: unrealized gains or losses are the paper value of holdings that haven't been sold yet — they can (and often do) reverse entirely before ever being locked in — while realized gains or losses are locked in the moment a sale, swap, or trade actually occurs, and are what typically becomes taxable. A portfolio showing a large unrealized gain feels like wealth, but nothing has actually been captured until that position is sold or converted, which is exactly why crypto portfolio values can swing enormously between "life-changing gains" and "back to breakeven" without a single trade being made.
Multiple purchases at different prices and different times (which is exactly what dollar-cost averaging produces) also complicate profit/loss tracking, since a portfolio's overall P&L depends on the accounting method used to determine which specific coins were sold — FIFO (first-in-first-out), LIFO (last-in-first-out), or specific-lot identification can each produce a different realized gain or loss figure from the exact same sale, because they assume different purchase batches were the ones actually sold. This matters beyond bookkeeping preference: in many jurisdictions the accounting method chosen has direct tax consequences, since it changes which purchase price (and therefore which gain or loss amount) gets attributed to a given sale.
Unrealized gains or losses reflect the current paper value of holdings that haven't been sold — they can reverse completely before being locked in. Realized gains or losses are locked in the moment a sale, swap, or trade actually happens, and are generally what becomes taxable in most jurisdictions.
Because when coins were purchased at different prices and times, the accounting method chosen determines which specific purchase price gets matched against a given sale — producing a different realized gain or loss figure from the exact same transaction. This has direct tax consequences in many jurisdictions, since it changes the taxable gain or loss reported.
Yes, if the price drops before you actually sell — an unrealized gain is only a paper figure until realized. This is exactly why crypto portfolios can swing from showing substantial gains to breakeven or worse without a single trade being executed, purely from price movement on unsold holdings.
In most jurisdictions' tax treatment, yes — a crypto-to-crypto swap is generally treated as a disposal of the original asset (triggering a realized gain or loss based on its cost basis) followed by acquisition of the new asset at its current value, even though no cash was involved. This surprises many crypto traders who assume only cashing out to fiat currency counts as a taxable event.