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How to ensure your transaction history is complete

Missing or incomplete transaction history leads to inaccurate balances, performance values, and tax calculations. Even a small omission — like a 2010 BTC trade — can affect calculations for other assets years later, because CoinTracker uses each purchase's price as the cost basis when you sell.

Checklist: Ensure a complete transaction history

To ensure an accurate transaction history, add all cryptocurrency, ICOs, trades, DeFi, transfers, withdrawals, and deposits to CoinTracker. Here’s what to consider:

  1. Exchanges: Add all exchanges for all years.
  2. Wallets: Add public wallet addresses. When applicable, add an xPub, yPub, or zPub, or a Stake key, for full tracking of UTXO blockchains. When adding a wallet, such as Coinbase Wallet, ensure that all blockchain addresses you interact with are added to CoinTracker.
  3. Hardware/cold storage wallets: Include cold storage/hardware/local wallets, such as Trezor or Ledger, even without active trading.
  4. Update imported wallets: Import a new CSV for any wallet you originally added via CSV. 
  5. Transactions: Add missing transactions for wallets or exchanges that were imported by: 

Find missing transaction history

  1. Review one-sided transactions

  • Use the Send and Receive transaction filters to inspect transactions.
  • Ensure Send transactions aren’t transfers to another wallet you own, such as cold storage.
  • A Receive transaction with no matching Send points to a missing transaction or history.

  1. Check transfers

  • Record every transfer between wallets you own — for example, moving assets to a hardware wallet — so CoinTracker doesn't mistake them for taxable events.
  • Ensure all your wallet addresses are added and correctly categorized in CoinTracker.

  1. Reconcile exchange histories

  • Cross-check CoinTracker transactions with your exchange's transaction history.
  • Use the Ignored filter on the Transactions page to verify if ignored transactions matches your exchange's records.
    • Go to the Transactions page, select the Status filter, and select Ignored.
  • Download a wallet-specific CSV from the Transactions page for easier comparison.

  1.  Review any review suggested messages

  • Reconcile review suggested transactions.
  • Understand that errors may indicate transaction history gaps and impact CoinTracker’s functionality.

Why complete transaction history matters

  • Data dependency and cost basis: Accurate transaction records are essential for calculating cost basis. A Buy transaction affects the Sell transaction, even across tax years. Missing data can lead to discrepancies.
  • Good data in, good data out: CoinTracker relies on accurate data to generate reliable results.
  • Tax implications of incomplete history: Incomplete or incorrect data can mislabel non-taxable transfers as taxable events or other incorrect transaction types, leading to inaccurate tax reports, unnecessary costs or potential penalties.
  • Importance of all-time history: Omitting old transactions can significantly impact current calculations, resulting in misleading or incorrect results.

Accurate record-keeping in CoinTracker allows you to fully leverage our tools, make informed decisions, and meet regulatory requirements.

If you run into any trouble, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team via Chatoshi for help.

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