How Crypto Journal works
All the journal’s terms in plain words. The main idea: profit isn’t a number on an exchange screen, it’s money that came back to you. That’s why the journal counts separately how much of your own money you put in, how much you took out and how much is in crypto right now.
01Deposit
A record that your money entered crypto: the date, how much fiat you paid and in which currency, which coin and how much you received. The coin’s price on that date fills in automatically (Binance daily close) and you can edit it. You can add a fee too.
02Withdraw
Money came back to you. Two kinds: “Cash out to fiat” — you sold and got money to your card or account; “Paid with crypto” — you paid for something with coins. You enter what it was worth in fiat.
03Deposited
The total of all deposits: how much of your own money you have put into crypto.
04Withdrawn
The total of all withdrawals: how much money came back to you.
05Fiat balance
Withdrawn minus Deposited. While it is negative, you haven’t got your money back yet. Once it turns positive, you are ahead in real money — not even counting what is still in crypto.
06In portfolios now
What all the coins in your portfolios are worth at current prices.
07Cost basis
What the coins you hold now cost you, at the average purchase price.
08Value now and Change
The current value of the same coins and the difference from the cost basis in percent. This is a paper result: it moves with the market.
09Portfolio
A separate strategy: long term, mid term, a goal for your kid. Each portfolio has its own buys, average price and result.
10Transfer
Moving coins between portfolios. It’s neither an investment nor a gain: the total doesn’t change and it doesn’t count as Deposited.
11Income
Coins you received without buying them, for example from staking.
12Realized profit
The difference between the sale price and the average purchase price. Sold into USDT — the profit is locked in, but the money stays in the portfolio until you record a Withdraw.
13Free stablecoins
USDT, USDC and other stablecoins in a portfolio that aren’t invested in coins. You can buy with them.
14Wallet
A public BTC, EVM, Solana, TRON or TON address. The journal only reads the balance; no private keys or seed phrases. You can also add coins manually.
15Import
Bringing past trades over from a CSV export from Bybit, Binance, OKX, Coinbase or Binance.US. For Coinbase and Binance.US you can also load them once with an API key — the key is never stored.