CoinMarketCap.
Know what you own.
Once you start buying crypto, you need somewhere to keep track of it.CoinMarketCap lets you follow the coins you're interested in, build a personal watchlist and create a portfolio that tracks the value and performance of the crypto you actually own.
Watchlist vs. Portfolio.
These sound similar, but they're used for two completely different things.
Watchlist
Your Watchlist is simply a collection of cryptocurrencies you want to keep an eye on.
You don't need to own them.
You're interested in SUI, AERO and NEAR but haven't bought them.Add them to your Watchlist so you can quickly check their price, percentage moves and market information.
Portfolio
Your Portfolio is for tracking crypto you actually own.
You enter your holdings and transactions so CoinMarketCap can estimate your total portfolio value and performance.
You own 2 ETH, 25 SOL and 10 TAO.Add those purchases to Portfolio and CoinMarketCap can track their value as prices change.
Download CoinMarketCap.
Download the official CoinMarketCap app for iPhone or Android.Once installed, create an account so your Portfolio, Watchlist, alerts and preferences can be associated with your account.
Create your CoinMarketCap account.
You can browse CoinMarketCap without becoming a crypto expert first. Creating an account makes the personalized tools much more useful.
Open the app
Launch the official CoinMarketCap mobile app.
Create an account
Tap the option to create an account.CoinMarketCap currently supports registration using email as well as options such as Google or Apple.
Verify your account
If you're signing up with email, complete the email verification process CoinMarketCap sends you.
Set your preferred currency
Check your preferences and choose the currency you want prices displayed in — for example CAD or USD.
Build your crypto radar.
Watchlists are probably the simplest feature in CoinMarketCap — and one of the most useful.
Add a coin to your Watchlist
- Open CoinMarketCap.
- Search for the cryptocurrency you want to follow.
- Open that cryptocurrency's page.
- Look for the star / Watchlist icon.
- Tap the star.
- The coin is now part of your Watchlist.
View your Watchlist
- Open the CoinMarketCap app.
- Navigate to your Watchlist.
- You'll see the cryptocurrencies you've saved.
- Use this as your personal shortlist instead of scrolling through thousands of cryptocurrencies.
- Tap any coin to open its full market page.
The point of a Watchlist is to reduce noise.Keep the cryptocurrencies you're genuinely interested in there so you can quickly see what your part of the market is doing.
Example Watchlist
Why I Use It
The overall crypto market contains thousands of tokens.
I don't need to care what all of them are doing.
A Watchlist gives me one clean screen showing the handful of assets I'm interested in.
Think of it as your personal crypto dashboard.
Now add what you actually own.
CoinMarketCap's Portfolio lets you enter transactions so you can track the approximate value and performance of your crypto holdings in one place.
Open Portfolio
Open the CoinMarketCap app and navigate to the Portfolio area.
Create your Portfolio
If this is your first time using the feature, follow the prompts to create your first portfolio.
Add a transaction
Choose the option to add a transaction or asset, then search for the cryptocurrency you own.
Choose the transaction type
For a crypto purchase, select the appropriate purchase or buy transaction type when available.
Enter how much you bought
Enter the quantity of cryptocurrency involved in the transaction.
Enter the purchase details
Enter the purchase price and transaction date as accurately as possible.This helps CoinMarketCap calculate your portfolio performance.
Save the transaction
Once saved, the cryptocurrency becomes part of your Portfolio and its value will move as the market price changes.
Say you bought 10 SOL.
The transaction
Imagine you purchased:
- Asset: Solana
- Quantity: 10 SOL
- Price paid: $200 per SOL
- Total: approximately $2,000
- Date: the date you actually purchased it
CoinMarketCap tracks it
If SOL later trades at $250, the approximate market value of those 10 SOL becomes:
$2,500
CoinMarketCap can then use the transaction information you entered to help show how your position and overall portfolio have performed.
Bought the same coin more than once?
Add the purchases as separate transactions when you want your tracking information to more closely reflect what actually happened.
SOL Purchase #1
SOL Purchase #2
Because you didn't actually buy all 10 SOL at the same price.Entering your transactions accurately gives the Portfolio tracker better information about the position you're trying to track.
What happens when you sell?
Update the Portfolio when your real holdings change.
Record the sale
- Open Portfolio.
- Select the cryptocurrency.
- Add another transaction.
- Choose the appropriate Sell transaction type.
- Enter the amount you sold.
- Enter the sale price and date.
- Save the transaction.
Recording a Buy or Sell in your CoinMarketCap Portfolio does not itself buy or sell the cryptocurrency.You're updating your tracker to reflect a transaction that happened elsewhere.
CoinMarketCap doesn't need to hold your crypto.
You can buy crypto on Coinbase, move some of it to Tangem and still use CoinMarketCap as the place where you track the overall portfolio.
Think about the three tools this way:
Coinbase: where you can buy and sell.
Tangem: where you can self-custody crypto.
CoinMarketCap: where you can watch the market and track what you own.
How I'd use CoinMarketCap every day.
Watchlist
Check what the coins I'm interested in are doing.
- Price today
- 24-hour percentage change
- Market capitalization
- Trading volume
- Price chart
Portfolio
Check what my own holdings are doing.
- Current portfolio value
- Individual holdings
- Portfolio allocation
- Position performance
- Overall market movement
Don't just stare at the price.
One of the biggest beginner mistakes is looking at a token that costs $0.03 and assuming it's somehow "cheaper" than Bitcoin because Bitcoin costs thousands of dollars.
CoinMarketCap gives you much more useful information — particularly market capitalization, circulating supply and trading volume.
As you learn crypto, start paying attention to those numbers instead of simply asking:
“How much does one coin cost?”
Treat your portfolio information as private.
Your portfolio can reveal quite a lot about how much cryptocurrency you own.
Do
- Use a strong password.
- Keep your phone secured.
- Download the official CoinMarketCap app.
- Keep your portfolio information private.
Don't
- Post screenshots showing your entire portfolio publicly.
- Share your account credentials.
- Trust random CoinMarketCap “support” messages.
- Assume a Portfolio entry is the same thing as actually owning crypto.
This is one of the first apps I'd install.
Coinbase helps you buy crypto.Tangem helps you protect it.But CoinMarketCap is where you can start learning how the entire market fits together.
Add Bitcoin, Ethereum and the cryptocurrencies you're interested in to a Watchlist.Add what you actually own to your Portfolio.
Then start watching how Bitcoin moves, how Ethereum responds, how the altcoins react and how your portfolio behaves during different market conditions.
That's when crypto starts becoming a market you understand instead of just a bunch of prices moving around on a screen.
Build your crypto dashboard.
Download CoinMarketCap, create your Watchlist and start tracking your portfolio.