Guides
Every crypto tracking question, answered.
Tracking crypto sounds simple until the number is wrong. These guides cover what actually goes wrong, why, and how to fix it — written for people who check on a phone, not people who run a trading desk.
The 60-second version
A crypto portfolio lives in more places than it should. An exchange or two, a hot wallet, a hardware wallet in a drawer, something staked, something bridged and forgotten. No single venue can see all of it, which is why the number on any one screen is always partly wrong.
These guides are about closing that gap and then keeping it closed. They cover the mechanics of tracking — read-only connections, watched addresses, manual entries, and the eight or so failure modes that produce a total you can't trust — plus the layer above it: knowing when something moved without having to watch for it.
They are written for holders, not traders with six monitors. Everything here assumes the screen in your hand.
Start here
Why Your Crypto Portfolio Balance Is Wrong
Your tracker says one number, your exchange says another. The eight things that cause a wrong crypto portfolio balance, and how to fix each one.
How to Track a Crypto Portfolio Across Multiple Wallets and Exchanges
Coins in four places and no single number. The three ways to connect an account to a tracker, what each one can see, and the order to set them up in.
Is It Safe to Connect Your Exchange to a Portfolio Tracker?
A read-only key cannot move funds. A tracker breach still exposes your holdings. The real risk, why withdrawal permission is never granted, how to revoke.
How to Set a Price Alert That Isn't Noise
Most first price alerts get muted within a week. How to pick a level that means something, choose above or below, and set an alert you'll still trust.
From Install to a Portfolio You Trust in Twenty Minutes
The order of operations for setting up a crypto portfolio tracker: inventory first, read-only keys, wallets, spam filter, manual positions, then reconcile.
The Crypto App vs. CoinStats
CoinStats is the heavier analytical tool; The Crypto App is the lighter mobile tracker. A factual side-by-side on pricing, sync limits and alerts.
The library100 guides
Getting a true number18
Your portfolio total is only useful if you believe it. Eighteen guides on the things that make it wrong.
- How to Add a Position Your Tracker Can't SeeOTC buys, peer-to-peer trades, cold storage and vesting allocations don't sync. How to enter them by hand so your total and cost basis stay right.
- Seeing Allocation Drift on a Phone ScreenA position that runs quietly becomes your largest risk without a single trade. How allocation drift works, and why percentages beat dollar figures.
- How to Audit Your Tracker Against the Real NumbersReconcile your tracker against exchange balances and block explorers. Where ground truth comes from, and which gaps are drift versus real errors.
- Cost Basis vs. Market Value: Which Number You're Looking AtMarket value is what your coins are worth now. Cost basis is what you paid. Why the two get confused, and why transfers break the second one.
- What Happens When a Coin You Hold Gets DelistedA holding froze at last week's price or vanished. How to tell a delisting from a rename, a redenomination or a chain migration, and how to re-map it.
- Why the Same Coin Shows Two Different PricesThere is no single price for a coin, only venue prices and volume-weighted averages. Why the gap is trivial for Bitcoin and huge for thin tokens.
- Duplicate Transactions After Connecting an ExchangeConnected an exchange and your balance doubled? The three ways duplicates appear, and how to clear them without destroying the cost basis underneath.
- How Many Wallets Is Too Many?Structure wallets by purpose, not by count. Where the line sits between useful separation and sprawl, and how to keep a many-wallet setup readable.
- Keeping One Portfolio in Sync Across Two DevicesPhone and tablet, or a phone you are replacing. What travels with your account, what stays on the handset, and how to verify before you wipe.
- Portfolio Analytics That Change DecisionsFour numbers change what you do: allocation, cost basis, drawdown from peak, and concentration. Most of the rest of a tracker's analytics are decoration.
- Why Your Crypto Portfolio Balance Is WrongYour tracker says one number, your exchange says another. The eight things that cause a wrong crypto portfolio balance, and how to fix each one.
- Read-Only API Keys: What a Portfolio Tracker Can and Cannot DoWhat read, trade and withdraw permissions actually grant, why a read-only key cannot move funds, and the exact settings to switch off before you connect.
- Spam and Dust Tokens Are Inflating Your PortfolioAirdropped spam tokens land in any public address and some carry fake prices. How to filter dust, and why swapping one is the actual attack.
- Tracking a Hardware Wallet Without Exposing AnythingWatch the public address instead of connecting the device. What an address reveals, whether to share a Bitcoin xpub, and why no tracker needs a seed.
- Tracking a Portfolio That Isn't Denominated in DollarsCrypto is quoted in USD, but you spend euros, pounds, rupees or naira. The FX layer sitting under your gain, and the case for tracking in both.
- How to Track a Crypto Portfolio Across Multiple Wallets and ExchangesCoins in four places and no single number. The three ways to connect an account to a tracker, what each one can see, and the order to set them up in.
- Where Your Staked and Pooled Assets WentStaked ETH, LP positions and lending receipts don't show up as the asset you deposited. Why DeFi totals read low and how to account for what's missing.
- Unrealised and Realised P&L, With Actual NumbersUnrealised profit is a quote. Realised profit is a completed transaction. A worked example with real figures, and why the gap decides your tax year.
Alerts12
Being told when something moves, instead of going to look. Price, volume, market cap, pump and wallet triggers.
- The Five-Alert RuleThirty price alerts become zero alerts the day you mute the app. A method for cutting back to the handful that actually prompt a decision.
- Why Your Alerts Aren't ArrivingPermissions, Focus modes, iOS notification summaries and Android battery optimisation all silence price alerts quietly. How to find which one is doing it.
- Setting Alerts Around a Known EventToken unlocks, listings, halvings and mainnet launches have dates on them. How to set alerts before the event instead of reading about it afterwards.
- How to Set a Price Alert That Isn't NoiseMost first price alerts get muted within a week. How to pick a level that means something, choose above or below, and set an alert you'll still trust.
- How Many Alerts Do You Actually Need?The caps are 100 free, 150 on Pro, 200 on Pro+. A realistic working set for ten positions is about fifteen. Most people never get near the free limit.
- Why Market Cap Alerts Beat Price Alerts on Small CapsPrice without supply tells you nothing. Why a token can double in price with zero change in market cap, the FDV trap, and how to set a market cap alert.
- Price Alerts vs. Percentage AlertsAbsolute levels answer 'has it reached my number?' Percentage alerts answer 'has something changed?' When to use each, and why percentages scale better.
- Catching an Abnormal Move Without Watching ChartsWhat separates an abnormal move from ordinary volatility, why one fixed percentage fails across assets, and what a pump alert can't do for you.
- Using Support and Resistance as Alert TriggersWhat support and resistance really describe, how to find a level without pretending it's a science, and why the alert belongs just before the level.
- What a Volume Spike Actually Tells YouVolume often moves before price. What a volume spike tells you, what it doesn't, how wash trading and listings fake it, and how to set a threshold.
- Watching an Address You Care AboutGet told when an address you specify moves funds. What wallet transaction alerts are good for, how they read chain data, and what they cannot tell you.
- Alerts on a Coin You Don't Own YetThe best alerts are usually on things you don't hold. How to build a watchlist of prices you'd actually pay, and let it wait for you.
Connecting exchanges14
Read-only setup, venue by venue. Where to create the key, what to switch off, and what won't import.
- Binance Keeps Your Money in Nine Places. Track All of Them.Binance splits balances across spot, funding, margin, futures and Earn. Build a read-only key that sees all of them, and know what still won't import.
- Tracking Bitget After the Unified Account Changed the API ScreenBitget's Unified Trading Account renamed the API permissions. The current wording, what copy trading does to your numbers, and keeping the key read-only.
- How to Track a Bitstamp Account, Sub-Accounts IncludedBitstamp keys stay inert until you click the activation email, and sub-accounts hold their own balances. Both explain most Bitstamp tracking gaps.
- How to Track Crypto You Bought in Robinhood, Revolut or Cash AppMost brokerage and neobank crypto has no public API, so manual entry is the honest answer. Which apps let you withdraw on-chain, and which do not.
- Your Bybit API Key Expires in 90 Days. Set It Up So It Doesn't.Bybit deletes keys with no IP restriction after three months. How to create a Read-Only key, and why your Funding account balance is missing.
- The Coinbase API Key Is Not Inside Your Coinbase AccountCoinbase moved API keys to a developer portal and retired the old ones. Where the key lives now, which permission to grant, and what Wallet needs instead.
- Crypto.com Is Two Products, and Only One of Them Has API KeysThe Crypto.com App and Exchange are separate accounts. Where the read-only API key lives, and how to get your app balances into the same total.
- Gate Gives You a Dropdown Per Permission. Here's How to Set Them.Gate's API key screen has a permission dropdown for every scope. Which to set to Read Only, which to leave at None, and why it wants your fund password.
- How to Track a Gemini Account Without Giving It Trading AccessGemini uses roles, not permission checkboxes. Pick Auditor, scope the key correctly, and know why unused Gemini keys quietly expire after 180 days.
- How to Track HTX Without Your Key Dying Every 90 DaysHTX expires API keys with no IP binding after 90 days, and a spot key misses margin, futures and Earn. Both facts decide how you connect HTX to a tracker.
- Kraken Gives You Ten Permission Boxes. A Tracker Needs Four.Which of Kraken's permission checkboxes a tracker needs, what the nonce window and query date fields do, and why your ETH shows up as ETH.S.
- The KuCoin Passphrase Nobody Tells You to Write DownKuCoin issues three secrets, not two, and the third one you invent yourself. How to create a General read-only key and why your balance still looks short.
- Why Your MEXC Connection Keeps Dying, and How to Stop ItA MEXC API key with no bound IP expires after 90 days. How to create a read-only key that survives, and why half your MEXC tokens show no price.
- Connecting OKX to a Tracker Without Losing Half the BalanceOKX splits your assets between Funding and Trading accounts. How to create a read-only OKX API key that sees both, and what the passphrase is for.
Wallets and chains12
Watching an address across fifteen networks, and what a public address does and doesn't reveal.
- Why the Same Token Shows Up Twice on ArbitrumUSDC and USDC.e are two contracts, two balances and one name. How Arbitrum's bridge creates duplicate tokens, and why Nova holdings stay invisible.
- The AVAX You Can't Find Is Probably on a Different AvalancheAvalanche runs three chains under one wallet, and most trackers only read one. Where AVAX hides, and how to check the C-Chain, X-Chain and P-Chain.
- Your Base Wallet Is Your Ethereum Wallet. That's the Whole Problem.Base reuses your Ethereum address, so the hard part is knowing which chain a balance is on. Bridged versus native USDC, and the seven-day exit.
- One Bitcoin Address Is Not Your Bitcoin WalletA single Bitcoin address shows one slice of your wallet. How change addresses, HD derivation and extended public keys decide what a tracker can see.
- BNB Chain Addresses Look Like Ethereum's. The Tokens Don't Behave Like It.BEP-20 copies ERC-20, but wrapped BTCB, peg tokens and industrial-scale spam make BNB Smart Chain the hardest chain to read a clean total on.
- What an Ethereum Address Actually Tells SomeoneAn Ethereum address is one public identity reused across dozens of chains. What a tracker reads, what approvals it cannot see, and where the same 0x lies.
- One Address, A Dozen Chains, One Number You Don't TrustYour EVM address exists on every EVM chain whether you used it or not. How to decide which chains to watch, and why a tracker double-counts or misses one.
- Tracking an Optimism Wallet When the Address Is Already YoursOptimism reuses your Ethereum address, which makes it easy to track badly. Bridged assets, the week-long withdrawal window, and the OP Stack chains.
- Tracking a Polygon Wallet After MATIC Became POLPolygon renamed its token and ships two versions of USDC. What that does to a portfolio tracker, and how to get the Polygon row to a number you trust.
- Your Solana Balance Lives in Dozens of Separate AccountsSolana keeps every token in its own account with its own rent deposit. Why your SOL looks short, where staked balances hide, and how to survive the spam.
- Your TON Wallet Has More Than One AddressOn TON a wallet is a smart contract, so one seed phrase gives you several addresses. How to find them all, and why jettons index differently.
- Tracking a Tron Wallet When Nothing Works Like EthereumTron addresses start with T, most Tron wallets are almost entirely USDT, and fees are paid in energy and bandwidth. What that changes about tracking.
Charts and market reading10
Candles, timeframes, indicators and macro overlays — read on the screen you actually carry.
- Bitcoin Dominance and What It SignalsBitcoin dominance is a ratio, not a signal. How it is calculated, why it moves for reasons unrelated to Bitcoin, and where altseason folklore breaks.
- The Timeframe You Track On and the One You Trade OnThe same coin looks bullish on the weekly and broken on the hourly. Why timeframes contradict each other, and how to pick one that fits how you hold.
- Comparing Two Coins on One ChartTwo prices on one chart compares nothing. Indexing both to a common start point, reading ratio charts, and choosing a start date that isn't cherry-picked.
- Reading Crypto Against Gold and the S&PBitcoin's correlation with equities changed around 2020 and never went back. What a macro overlay shows that a price chart can't, and where it misleads.
- Market Cap vs. Fully Diluted ValuationA $40m market cap with a $2bn FDV is not a small coin. Both calculations, why the gap is crypto's commonest valuation trap, and how emissions close it.
- Moving Averages, PlainlyWhat simple and exponential moving averages compute, why the period matters more than the type, and why every crossover is late by construction.
- Reading a Candlestick Chart on a PhoneWhat a candle encodes, why body and wick mean different things, why colours vary between apps, and what is genuinely legible on a six-inch screen.
- The Indicator Most Mobile Traders IgnoreVolume shows how much participation was behind a price move. What low-volume moves mean, and why crypto volume deserves less trust than equity volume.
- RSI: What It Says and What It Doesn'tRSI measures recent gains against recent losses. Why 70 and 30 are not signals, why it stays pinned in strong trends, and what divergence really shows.
- Circulating Supply, Unlocks, and the Chart You Can't SeeVesting schedules create future supply no price chart shows. Where to find an unlock schedule, cliff versus linear vesting, and why dates are knowable.
Comparisons12
Honest side-by-sides, including where the other app wins.
- Where Blockfolio and Delta Users Ended UpBlockfolio became the FTX app and died with FTX in November 2022. What happened to the data, what the estate has repaid since, and where to move now.
- Free vs. Paid Crypto Trackers: What the Money Actually BuysFree tiers limit connections, sync frequency, alert types and ads. Which limits actually bite, and when paying for a crypto tracker is worth it.
- How to Switch Trackers Without Losing Your HistoryExport first, know what carries over, rebuild cost basis properly, and run both apps in parallel. Switching a crypto tracker costs history, never funds.
- What to Look For in a Crypto TrackerA buyer's checklist: venue and chain coverage, DeFi handling, alert depth, read-only limits, export, pricing, and whether the company lasts three years.
- Your Exchange's Portfolio View vs. a Standalone TrackerAn exchange portfolio screen is exact about one venue and blind to every other. When that's enough, when it isn't, and what independent tracking is for.
- A Tracker vs. a Spreadsheet: An Honest ComparisonA spreadsheet gives control, custom logic and permanence. A tracker gives live prices, alerts and on-chain reads. What each costs you, and the hybrid.
- A Portfolio Tracker and Crypto Tax Software Do Different JobsOne answers what you hold now. The other reconstructs every disposal in a past tax year. Why swapping them frustrates people, and how they fit together.
- The Crypto App vs. CoinGeckoCoinGecko is a data platform with a wallet-based portfolio attached. The Crypto App is a tracker built around connections. Where each one wins.
- The Crypto App vs. CoinMarketCapCoinMarketCap is a market-data reference with a portfolio attached. The Crypto App is a tracker with market data. What each one is genuinely better at.
- The Crypto App vs. CoinStatsCoinStats is the heavier analytical tool; The Crypto App is the lighter mobile tracker. A factual side-by-side on pricing, sync limits and alerts.
- The Crypto App vs. DeltaDelta is eToro-owned, still actively built, and tracks stocks too. A factual comparison on pricing, free tier caps, alerts and who each one suits.
- Web Dashboard vs. Mobile App for Tracking CryptoMobile wins on notifications and widgets. Web wins on screen space and reconciliation work. An honest look at what each form factor is really better at.
Safety and privacy8
What a tracker can see, what it can never do, and how to spot the fakes.
- Why a Portfolio App Needs Its Own LockA device passcode protects a locked phone. Most exposure happens on an unlocked one. What an app lock adds, and what it cannot possibly do.
- How Counterfeit Crypto Apps Get Into App StoresCounterfeit wallet apps clear store review regularly. How they get through, the signals that identify one, and how to verify the real listing.
- Is It Safe to Connect Your Exchange to a Portfolio Tracker?A read-only key cannot move funds. A tracker breach still exposes your holdings. The real risk, why withdrawal permission is never granted, how to revoke.
- Nobody Legitimate Will Ever Ask for Your Seed PhraseA seed phrase is the wallet, not a password for it. Why no real app or agent needs one, the scripts scammers use, and what to do if you shared it.
- Moving Your Portfolio to a New Phone Without Losing AnythingConnections and manual positions follow your account. Widgets, app lock and notifications do not. The migration order that avoids losing anything.
- How to Revoke an Exchange API Key ProperlyDeleting a connection in an app does not revoke the key. Where the real control lives on Binance, Kraken and Coinbase, and how to audit old keys.
- The Privacy You Give Up When You Use a Public AddressYour address publishes your balance and full history to anyone, permanently. How addresses get linked to identities, and which mitigations work.
- What a Portfolio Tracker Can Actually SeeBalances and trade history, yes. Private keys, seed phrases and moving funds, no. What the app, the company and the public can each actually see.
News and research8
Building a feed that tells you something, from around 68 publishers.
- AI News Summaries: What They Get Right and Where They MisleadSummaries strip hedges, lose attribution and turn one source echoed by forty outlets into consensus. What they're good for, and when to open the original.
- Building a Crypto News Feed That Isn't NoiseCrypto media publishes far more than anyone can read. How to filter a feed to what you actually hold, prune sources deliberately, and stop skimming.
- Research Sources Worth Your TimeThe six categories of crypto research source, how to judge one before you rely on it, and what to do when a source paywalls or shuts down entirely.
- Fear and Greed, Used Without Over-Trusting ItWhat the Fear and Greed Index is actually built from, why half of it is just price restated, and the failure modes that make it a poor timing tool.
- When News Actually Moves a CoinWhy the announcement often marks the top, what 'priced in' really means, and the difference between a headline and a catalyst that changes something.
- Following One Coin Without Following the Whole MarketNarrowing a feed to a single asset, the primary sources worth watching for a project, and how to stop a focused feed becoming an echo chamber.
- Telling a Real Headline From a Paid PlacementCrypto outlets label sponsored posts, but the labels fall off in feeds. Where disclosure hides, how wire releases pass as journalism, and the tells.
- Reading a Token's Fundamentals in Five MinutesSupply and emissions, holder concentration, liquidity depth, real usage versus claimed usage, and treasury transparency. A fast pass that disqualifies.
Setup and reference6
The twenty-minute setup, the glossary, widgets, exports and the small stuff.
- Home Screen Widgets: What to Put WhereFive crypto widgets: Global, Prices, News, Portfolio and ETH gas. What each is for, how iOS and Android differ, and how not to check them all day.
- Getting Your Data OutWhy portability matters in a portfolio tracker, what an export contains, what it is good for, and why a tool you cannot leave deserves caution.
- A Crypto Portfolio Tracking GlossaryPlain definitions for cost basis, FDV, LP positions, xpub, dust, honeypots and the other terms crypto portfolio trackers assume you already know.
- Tracking in Your Own Language and CurrencyCrypto is priced in dollars wherever you live. How the FX layer sits under your reported gain, and why a strengthening home currency quietly eats returns.
- Tracking Crypto on a Slow Connection or an Older PhoneWhat uses data in a portfolio tracker, how to cut refresh load, why widgets and alerts cost less than checking, and what degrades on older hardware.
- From Install to a Portfolio You Trust in Twenty MinutesThe order of operations for setting up a crypto portfolio tracker: inventory first, read-only keys, wallets, spam filter, manual positions, then reconcile.
Common questions
No. The guides are free to read, and most of what they describe works on the free tier of the app — read-only connections, watchlists, charting, news and 100 price alerts.
No. Most of them describe how crypto tracking works in general, and several compare us directly with alternatives, including where those alternatives are better. Where the app is specifically relevant, we say so.
Each guide carries a verification date. Exchange interfaces and pricing change frequently, so pages touching those are re-checked quarterly and the date is only moved when something is actually re-verified.
The weekly AI news roundups have been retired. The subjects worth keeping now live in the News and research section of this library, in a form built to answer a question rather than recap a week.
