Bitcoin Calculator

Multiply your coins by the sale price, then subtract what you paid and all your fees. If 0.25 BTC bought at $40,000 ($10,000) is sold at $50,000 ($12,500), and you paid $50 in total fees, you've made $2,450, or about a 24.4% ROI on your $10,025 total cost. Use the calculator for a quick estimate and your exchange records for the exact figures.

It has been for many long-term holders, and it has been painful for many who bought near peaks and sold in downturns. Whether it's profitable for you depends on when you buy and sell, and those can't be known in advance. It has no earnings or dividends, so returns depend entirely on price. Only invest what you could stand to lose, and consider how much volatility you can tolerate.

Its price is set by supply and demand on exchanges around the world. Its supply grows on a fixed schedule toward 21 million coins. Demand reflects investor interest, adoption, regulation, interest rates and sentiment. There's no central bank or company supporting the price. Because of that, large swings can happen on news, or on no clear news at all.

In the US, Bitcoin is treated as property. Selling it, trading it for another coin or spending it can trigger a capital gain or loss. If you held for a year or less, gains are generally taxed as ordinary income. If you held longer, the lower long-term rates apply. Holding without selling isn't a taxable event. See the IRS digital assets page.

There's no special tax-free amount for crypto in the US. But if your taxable income is low enough, long-term gains may fall in the 0% federal bracket. You can also offset gains with losses from other investments. Holding Bitcoin through a retirement account, for example via a fund inside a Roth IRA, follows different rules. Other countries have their own allowances.

Over some periods it has far outrun stocks, and over others it has fallen much further. It also comes with much bigger drawdowns, and a far shorter history. Comparing the two needs the same dates and the same costs. Stock returns are also supported by company earnings and dividends, which Bitcoin doesn't have. Use our stock calculator to compare recent periods side by side.

Yes, but profit only exists once you sell. On most exchanges, you sell your Bitcoin for dollars, then transfer the cash to your bank, which can take a few days and may involve a fee or a withdrawal limit. The sale is the taxable event, not the withdrawal. If you hold your coins in your own wallet, you'll need to send them to an exchange first.

Choose 5 or 10 years as the period above, or pick a start date as far back as August 2010, and the calculator shows the result from our saved daily prices. Hindsight is flattering, though. Anyone who held for a decade also had to sit through several collapses, and many early holders sold or lost access to their coins along the way. So long-run results from the very start don't reflect what most people actually earned.

Bitcoin trades on many exchanges at once, 24 hours a day, with no single official price. Prices vary slightly between exchanges and with the moment a price is recorded. Our recent daily prices come from CoinGecko, which aggregates many markets. Older days come from Coinbase and, before Coinbase listed Bitcoin in 2015, from Blockchain.com. What you actually receive depends on your own exchange, its spread and its fees.

Mining creates new coins and secures the network, but you don't need to mine to own Bitcoin. Most people buy it on an exchange or through a fund. Miners earn block rewards and fees, and they have big electricity and hardware costs. Some say that the cost of production influences price, but the evidence is mixed. Learn more on our crypto mining calculator page.

No one can say, and anyone who says they know is guessing. Past returns happened when it was far smaller and may not repeat. If you're considering it, decide how much you could lose, keep it a small part of your portfolio, and think about how you'd react to a 50% or larger fall. Nothing here is investment advice.