How does dollar-cost averaging work?

Dollar-cost averaging invests a fixed amount at regular intervals regardless of price. When the price is low your fixed sum buys more coins, and when it is high it buys fewer. Over time this lowers your average cost basis compared with buying everything at one moment.

How is the average cost basis calculated?

Average cost basis is total amount invested divided by total coins acquired. Each period you buy amount divided by that period's price worth of coins. Summing the coins and dividing the total spend by that sum gives the weighted-average price you effectively paid.

How is DCA compared to lump-sum?

The lump-sum scenario invests your entire budget (per-period amount times number of periods) at the very first price, then values it at the final price. DCA spreads the same total across all periods. Whichever ends with the higher current value won for that price path.

Does DCA always beat lump-sum?

No. DCA reduces risk and shines in falling or volatile markets, but in a steadily rising market lump-sum usually wins because more capital is exposed sooner. This tool lets you test both on the exact price history you provide and see which would have done better.

What price data should I paste?

Use closing prices at your chosen interval — weekly or monthly closes work well for long-term DCA. Order them oldest to newest. You can copy a column from a spreadsheet or exchange export; the tool ignores any leading date and reads the final number on each line.

Crypto DCA Backtest Tool (Manual Data)

Dollar-cost averaging is the most common crypto investing strategy, but its real performance depends entirely on the price path. This tool lets you backtest it on your own data: paste a price series, set a fixed per-period investment, and it computes exactly how many coins you would have accumulated, your average cost basis, your current value, and how that compares with investing the whole sum at the start.

How it works

Each period buys a fixed dollar amount of coin at that period’s price, and the results are summed:

coins this period = amount / price
total coins       = Σ (amount / price)
total invested    = amount × number of periods
avg cost basis    = total invested / total coins
current value     = total coins × final price
profit/loss       = current value − total invested
ROI %             = profit/loss / total invested × 100

lump-sum coins    = total invested / first price
lump-sum value    = lump-sum coins × final price

Because you buy more coins when the price is low, the average cost basis is the harmonic-style weighted average of the prices, not the simple mean — which is why DCA tends to beat a naive average in volatile markets.

Example and tips

Investing 100 a week across prices of 100, 50, and 200 buys 1, 2, and 0.5 coins — 3.5 coins for 300 spent, an average cost of about 85.7 versus the 116.7 simple mean. At a final price of 200 that position is worth 700, a 133 percent gain, while a 300 lump-sum at the first price of 100 buys 3 coins worth 600. Paste real weekly or monthly closes oldest-first; the longer and more volatile the series, the more clearly the DCA-versus-lump-sum trade-off shows.