What is PnL in crypto? Realized vs unrealized PnL
PnL is profit and loss against what you paid. How realized and unrealized PnL differ, how cost basis splits them, and why two apps show different PnL.
What is PnL in crypto? PnL, also written P&L, is profit and loss: what a position is worth now, or what it sold for, measured against what you paid for it. Traders split it in two. Realized PnL is locked in by a sale or a closed position, and unrealized PnL is the paper result on what you still hold. Cherry is a wallet-to-wallet messenger and community app for crypto, and its Trading Terminal mini app shows both figures for the trades made inside it.
How PnL in crypto is counted
Every PnL figure is a subtraction with two inputs, a price and a cost basis. The price is the current market for an open position, or the exit price for a closed one. The cost basis is what you paid, usually with fees included. Kraken’s help article on PnL calculations, last updated in June 2026, describes realized PnL as the profit or loss “that becomes final once you close a position” and takes the entry and exit fees out of it.
Realized and unrealized, in round numbers
The figures in this example are illustrative. You buy 1,000 tokens at $0.10, then 1,000 more at $0.20: 2,000 tokens for $300. At $0.25 they are worth $500, so your unrealized PnL is +$200 and your realized PnL is zero. Sell half at $0.25 and $250 comes back. Part of the gain is now realized, and how much depends on which tokens the sale is counted against.
Cost basis: why two trackers disagree
| Method (illustrative) | Cost of the 1,000 sold | Realized | Unrealized on the rest | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average cost | $150 | +$100 | +$100 | +$200 |
| First in, first out (FIFO) | $100 | +$150 | +$50 | +$200 |
Average cost prices every token at the blended $0.15. FIFO treats the earliest tokens as the ones sold, here the batch bought at $0.10. Tax rules can pick the method for you: the IRS’s virtual currency FAQ treats units you do not specifically identify as sold first in, first out.
Missing history is a second cause. A tracker knows what you paid only for the trades it saw, so tokens that arrived by transfer, by airdrop or through a swap on another app have no cost basis there. Trackers also differ on which wallets they count, which price they mark to and whether fees come off. Apps that pull several wallets into one view are compared in Solana portfolio tracker apps .
A PnL card posted in the trenches is a screenshot, and a screenshot takes a minute to crop or edit.
Example on Cherry
The Trading Terminal mini app keeps a Portfolio screen inside Cherry chats. Under your total value it shows three figures, labelled all time, open and realized, and below them three tabs: Holdings for the tokens in the wallet, Positions for open perp positions and Activity for recent fills. The cost basis comes only from trades you made in the Terminal. A bag bought on another app shows its current value with no cost basis, and its PnL counts only the trades the Terminal recorded.
A trade shared from the Terminal into a room arrives as a live card that keeps quoting the market, and another member can buy that token from the card in one tap, which is how trading in chat handles copy trading. In a room that runs the call bot , calls are ranked by the token’s peak multiplier since the message, a score that follows the token’s price and carries no member’s fills. Badges on a Cherry profile are assigned by Cherry’s admins, and none is computed from PnL.
Nothing here is financial advice.
Related terms
- Trenches : the newest end of the market, where PnL screenshots circulate most.
- Crypto whale : a holder large enough to move the price everyone else marks PnL to.
- KOL : a key opinion leader, the caller whose record a PnL screenshot is usually meant to prove.
FAQ
Why does my PnL differ between apps?
Each app computes PnL from its own cost basis. One averages your purchase prices and another counts the earliest tokens as sold first, which splits the same total gain differently between realized and unrealized. An app also knows only the trades it saw, so tokens that arrived by transfer, airdrop or a swap somewhere else carry no purchase price there, and apps differ on which wallets, prices and fees they include.
Sources
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