Crypto Investment Calculator: Backtest 12 Coins with DCA

The calculator uses monthly closing prices for each supported coin from Yahoo Finance. Data is updated periodically and covers coins from their earliest reliable trading history through the most recent available month. Other exchanges or aggregators may show slightly different historical prices, particularly for smaller coins in earlier years.

The calculator covers 12 coins: BTC, ETH, XRP, BNB, SOL, DOGE, ADA, LINK, TRX, BCH, XLM, and LTC. Bitcoin and Litecoin have monthly data from September 2014, Ethereum, XRP and most other coins from November 2017, and Solana from April 2020. The earliest start year is the year after that (2015, 2018 and 2021), because the first year of a backtest needs the previous December close.

Monthly compounding means that each month the calculator first adds your contribution for that month, then applies the coin's return for that month to the whole balance, so a new deposit already moves with the price in the month it arrives. A balance of $10,000 plus a $100 contribution that gains 2% in one month becomes $10,302 ($10,100 × 1.02). In the calculator's worked example, a $1,000 starting stake plus $100 added every month in Bitcoin from January 2016 to December 2024 produced 108 monthly compounding steps on $11,800 invested in total ($1,000 plus $10,800 in contributions), with each month's return applied to a base that already included every prior month's growth. This differs from simple interest, where only the starting principal would earn a return each period and past gains would sit idle. Because crypto returns can swing sharply from month to month, a single strong month can lift the balance by a large percentage in one step, while a weak month can erase several months of gains just as fast.

Backtesting replays a strategy against historical data to show what would have happened under those exact conditions, not what will happen next. This calculator applies your contribution schedule and starting amount to a coin's actual monthly closing prices. The result shows past performance only and does not account for decisions you might have made during volatile periods. The worked example on this page backtests $1,000 plus $100 a month in Bitcoin from January 2016 to December 2024, replaying 108 real monthly price changes rather than an assumed average return. A common edge case is a very short window, such as a single year: a one or two year backtest can land entirely inside one bull or bear cycle, so the result reflects that specific period rather than the coin's typical long-run behavior. Extending the window to five years or more gives a better sense of how sensitive the outcome is to the exact month you started.

This annual percentage extends the projection beyond the last month with real price data. A 5% entry converts to approximately 0.41% per month, which is applied to your balance going forward. Setting it to 0% stops market growth after the data ends and only continues adding contributions. Try 0%, 5%, and 10% side by side to see how sensitive the result is to your future assumption.

Each coin entered reliable trading history at a different time. Bitcoin and Litecoin have data from September 2014, Ethereum and XRP from November 2017, and Solana from April 2020. A backtest that starts in January measures that first month against the close of the previous December, so the earliest start year is the year after the data begins: 2015 for Bitcoin and Litecoin, 2018 for Ethereum and XRP, and 2021 for Solana. An earlier year would have no December close to start from, so the calculator does not offer it.

Frequency controls how often you invest. Seven options are available: daily (365 deposits per year), weekly (52), biweekly (26), semimonthly (24), monthly (12), quarterly (4), and annual (1). All frequencies are converted to an equivalent monthly contribution before being added, so monthly compounding stays consistent regardless of which schedule you choose.

Toggling the live chart opens an embedded TradingView widget displaying the coin's current market price and recent price action. This is entirely separate from the historical backtest and uses live market data rather than the monthly Yahoo Finance series. It is useful for checking where the coin stands today alongside your backtest results.

Investing a fixed amount each month means you buy more units when the price is low and fewer when the price is high. Over a multi-year window this averaging effect can reduce the damage from entering at a peak. A $100/month plan spread over 5 years has 60 entry points rather than one, making the precise starting price less critical to the outcome. This is commonly called dollar-cost averaging, and the calculator's worked example applies it over 108 monthly purchases between January 2016 and December 2024 rather than putting the whole $11,800 in on day one. Spreading purchases this way does not guarantee a profit: if a coin trends downward for most of the window, later contributions still buy lower but the balance can stay below its starting point until prices recover. The benefit is clearest when a short one or two year window is compared against a five year or longer window where dozens of entry points average out much of that timing risk.

On this calculator's monthly closing prices, $1,000 put into Bitcoin at the end of September 2021, when one BTC closed near $43,791, was worth about $1,908 at the end of September 2026, when it closed near $83,554. That is a gain of roughly 91% in five years. The same $1,000 invested at the end of September 2016, when Bitcoin closed near $610, would have grown to about $137,033 ten years later. The starting month matters a lot: autumn 2021 sat close to a market peak, so the five year result is modest, while 2016 caught the early part of several bull cycles. To test a lump sum yourself, enter $1,000 as the starting amount, set the recurring contribution to $0 and pick a start and end year. The calculator works in whole calendar years, so its result will differ from the month to month figures above. Past returns do not predict what $1,000 will do over the next five years.

Bitcoin's annualized price volatility typically runs between 50% and 100%, compared to roughly 15% to 20% for broad equity indices. In practice, Bitcoin rose more than fourteenfold in calendar year 2017 and then fell about 74% in 2018 on the calculator's monthly closes. These swings appear in the yearly breakdown as large positive or negative growth rows, and a longer backtest window averages across multiple cycles for a more stable trend line. The scale becomes concrete in the calculator's own history: Bitcoin fell about 74% on monthly closes from its December 2017 peak to December 2018, dropped about 64% in 2022 alone, then recovered about 850% on this calculator's monthly closing prices from March 2020 to October 2021. Smaller or less liquid coins on this calculator, such as Solana, have shown even sharper single month swings than Bitcoin, so the same $100 monthly plan can produce a wider range of yearly outcomes depending on which coin you select.

No, results are gross before any costs. Trading fees vary by exchange but typically run 0.05% to 0.5% per trade. On a $100 monthly contribution at 0.1% that is $0.10 per trade, small individually but it compounds over many years of monthly purchases. Over the calculator's own 108 month worked example that alone adds up to roughly $11 in direct trading fees on the contributions, and that figure ignores exchange spreads, withdrawal costs, and any fees charged on the balance itself. Capital gains taxes on crypto profits are not modeled either, and the rules vary widely by country and by how long a position was held, so the after tax outcome can differ from the pre tax number shown here. If you want a rough net figure, subtracting an estimated combined fee and tax percentage from the final balance is more realistic than assuming the result is what you would actually keep.

No. The model compounds price returns only. Proof-of-stake yields, lending income, staking rewards, and airdrop receipts are not tracked. Coins like ETH and ADA offer staking yields that can add 3% to 6% per year on top of price returns, meaning the real-world outcome for active stakers may differ from what this calculator shows.

This calculator is for educational use only and does not constitute financial, tax, legal, or investment advice. Cryptocurrency investments carry significant risk including the possibility of total loss. Past performance, even over a period that produced exceptional returns, does not guarantee future results.