Strangely enough, I’ve never really thought of my crypto holdings as a “portfolio”.
Portfolios are for boring old men in grey suits or young dickheads who think winning on Wall Street makes them more masculine.
My crypto’s just… well, my crypto.
Anyway, I wanted something to show me pretty graphs and track multiple accounts in one place (other than me doing it in Excel!), so I looked at the two main coin info sites – CoinGecko and CMC – and a couple of specialist portfolio sites.
Here’s what I found…
CoinGecko
I’ve previously used CoinGecko to track a long-term-hold portfolio (I’m gonna hate that word by the end of this post).
The site used to be quick, the setup pretty simple – log in, create, add coins, add transactions.
It’s not built for anyone who trades or switched cryptos frequently, as you have to add everything manually, but it’s an excellent choice if you’re buying seldom and holding long-term.
It’s annoying if you’re holding with interest because you have to add the interest “transaction” manually every time, or update the original buy with the new total (which messes with value).
On the up side, it’s a great setup for things like my ’26 Picks because they’re a single, fixed buy, and I can watch how value changes without faffing around.
Anyway, the site’s gone to shit recently.
It’s horribly slow, the coin list is set up so it’s wider than the browser, which means either zooming out or constantly fiddling with scroll bars to get to the “show transactions” option, and some coins have weirdly wrong prices (mostly the tiny ones, so not a problem if you’re sticking to larger players).
Why? Because they’re trying to do everything.
As you may remember if you’re a regular visitor to my content (a.k.a. “nonsense”), I loathe sites/programs that try to do everything.
Do your job, do it well, STFU.
Constantly adding “features” merely slows everything down and makes it hard to navigate.
Given that my Trading category moves fairly often and I have several coins earning interest in multiple places, CoinGecko’s not an option.
CoinMarketCap
Nope.
I didn’t even load the main page, it takes so goddamned long.
The epitome of trying to do everything.
Not even going to consider it.
Or link it.
Coinstats
The first specialised tracker that I looked at.
As I had hoped, Coinstats connects through APIs to pretty much any exchange or wallet (over 300, apparently). They recommend limiting API access to their IP address list, but I left mine open because I wanted to be able to reuse them!
The site let me add multiple accounts from the same exchanges – a big plus – and happily shows each wallet separately or all of them together in a combined portfolio.
They have a “custom exchange” option to add a CSV of coins (impractical for regular trading) and there’s an option for adding a “Manual Portfolio”, but that’s just a number without details.
I had a bit of trouble getting all my connections synched the first time, because the exchanges take time to register new API keys. That’s normal.
On the downside, the UI’s a bit busy for my liking. They look like they’re headed in the direction of doing everything (ugh!), with coin swapping options and so on already available.
As you can imagine, that’s a big potential negative for me.
For the moment, I’ve got things set up and will see how it feels.
Cointracker
Cointracker‘s also pretty simple to set up, with a big list of exchanges for which you can add wallets.
On the positive side, most connect through APIs, so there’s no issue with keeping track of frequent trading and so on.
Most also have an “upload CSV” option (built for each exchange, which is neat) for those of us who like our privacy and/or don’t trust read-only APIs!
You can also add transactions manually – in bulk – and set your buying prices so the site can accurately track profit and loss on holdings. That’s a VERY nice option if you don’t want to screw around with connecting stuff and have a list like my ’26 Picks.
The biggest plus for me, though, is the phenomenally spartan UI.
It’s a portfolio tracker, and that’s all it is.
Bloody hell, they read my mind!
I’ve got everything set up here, as well, and will keep an eye on things… in the hope that they just keep tracking and nothing else.
The Big But
Nothing is perfect online.
There’s always something missing or a big annoyance that renders everything a compromise.
In the case of portfolio trackers, it’s what they can access through APIs.
I use both MEXC and CoinEx, but neither of them include anything in their “Earn” programs in their API access.
That means I can get spot info – my Trading category – and futures (which I don’t use), but I can’t get any info from MEXC’s Copy Trading or from Banking for either exchange.
That sucks, because it’s, like, at least 70% of my portfolio.
Now, to be fair, this is not the trackers’ fault: it’s the exchanges who don’t include that information.
But it’s a major oversight and, honestly, means I have no choice but to stick with Excel to have everything in one place.
There’s always a big but.
Do you use a portfolio tracker? Found a good one? I’d love to have a look!!
