What is Realized P&L?

Realized PnL is the profit or loss that has actually been locked in by selling, swapping or otherwise disposing of an asset. It is the sale proceeds minus the cost basis of what was sold, fees included on both sides, and unlike its unrealized counterpart it does not change afterwards. It is also, in most jurisdictions, the number that becomes taxable, which is why its definition matters more than any other figure in a tracker.

The definition turns on what counts as a disposal. A sale for fiat plainly does. A swap of one token for another does too, in most tax systems, even though no cash appeared. A transfer between your own accounts does not, and a tool that treats it as one will report realized gains you never made. Funding payments and staking rewards are usually income rather than realized PnL, and belong in their own column.

Which cost basis is realized depends on the lot method. Selling half of a position bought at two prices realizes a different gain under FIFO, HIFO or average cost, and the choice is a tax decision rather than a portfolio one. A honest tracker shows the figure under a stated convention and hands the lots to whoever files.

TrueHold shows realized PnL under a weighted average cost and exports the underlying transactions, transfers and DeFi events in a tax-ready CSV so that an accountant or a tax tool can apply the required method. The export is data, not a tax form.

The practical habit is to keep a complete record of every disposal with its date, amount, proceeds and fee, because the realized figure is only as good as the transaction list it is computed from. A missing exchange export or an unmatched transfer is the usual reason a year-end number disagrees with reality.