Average Cost
The weighted average price you paid per unit of an asset, based on your buy and auto-invest transactions.
What is Average Cost?
Average Cost (also called cost basis) is the weighted average price you paid for each unit of an asset. It combines all your purchase transactions to give a single per-unit cost figure, which is then used to calculate your unrealized profit or loss.
How it's calculated
The formula is a weighted average across all qualifying transactions: Average Cost = total cost / total quantity Where: • total cost = sum of (quantity × price per unit) for each transaction • total quantity = sum of quantities across those transactions For example, if you bought 1 BTC at $60,000 and later 0.5 BTC at $30,000: total cost = (1 × $60,000) + (0.5 × $30,000) = $75,000 total quantity = 1.5 BTC Average Cost = $75,000 / 1.5 = $50,000 per BTC
Which transactions are included
Only transactions that represent actual capital spent are counted: • Buy — manual or exchange purchases • Transfer In — assets moved from an external wallet • Auto-Invest — recurring investment purchases (e.g. WhiteBIT Convert) Staking rewards, airdrops, and fees are excluded because they do not represent a direct purchase at a known price.
Why sells don't change the average
Sells, swaps, and transfers out do not affect your Average Cost. The calculation only looks at what you paid — not what you sold. If you buy 2 BTC at $50,000 and later sell 1 BTC, your Average Cost remains $50,000. This is the simple weighted average method, which answers the question "what did I pay on average?" It is the standard approach used by most portfolio trackers. For tax reporting purposes (realized gains per sale), a different method such as FIFO or LIFO would be used — that is a separate calculation.
Multiple connections
If you hold the same asset across several exchanges or wallets, each connection tracks its own average cost. The asset table shows a combined weighted average across all connections.