Cost basis is the total amount you originally paid to acquire an asset, including fees, used to calculate your profit or loss when you sell.
Cost basis is the original value of an asset for tax and tracking purposes. It is usually the purchase price plus any commissions or fees you paid to acquire it.
Your cost basis matters because it is the baseline against which gains and losses are measured. If you buy one Bitcoin for $30,000 and later sell it for $40,000, your $10,000 gain is the difference between the sale price and your cost basis.
When you buy the same asset multiple times at different prices, your cost basis is typically the average of those purchases (average cost) or tracked per lot, depending on the accounting method you use.
WalletLens calculates your cost basis automatically as you log trades, so you always know your true profit or loss across crypto, stocks and metals without keeping a spreadsheet.
WalletLens is a free, private net-worth tracker that puts concepts like this into practice — it tracks your crypto, stocks, gold and cash in one dashboard, computing cost basis, P&L and allocation automatically with live prices. No account, and your data stays on your device.
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