TL;DR
This warning means CoinTracking cannot find a proper cost basis for a coin you’ve sold. Most likely, the sale is preceded only by a deposit (which doesn’t establish a cost basis). You must add the original purchase, trade, or income-type transaction to fix it.
What Does This Warning Mean?
In CoinTracking, a purchase pool tracks how much of a coin you own and at what cost. It’s increased by purchases and reduced by sales.
To calculate gains and losses correctly, every coin must have a cost basis, typically created by one of the following transaction types:
Trade
Income / Staking / Mining
Airdrop / Gift
Income (non-taxable)
Deposits do not create a cost basis — they simply indicate a transfer from another wallet and must be matched with a corresponding withdrawal.
Common Causes of This Warning
A coin appears in your account only as a deposit, with no earlier cost basis transaction.
You made a direct crypto purchase via credit/debit card, but the transaction was imported as a deposit instead of a Trade.
The system used a coin from a different source than expected (due to the selected tax method like FIFO), and that source lacks a cost basis.
You're using Depot Separation (Lot Separation), but the deposit timestamp is earlier than the corresponding withdrawal, disrupting the cost basis transfer.
How to Investigate and Fix
Identify the problematic coin
Open the tax report or "Realized and Unrealized Gains" page and locate the warning.Trace its origin
Go to the coin’s transaction history
Use the Missing Transactions Report to check for unmatched deposits (white entries).
Check for mistyped or missing trades
Look for credit/debit card purchases entered as deposits and change them to Trades.
Review other wallet imports for gaps in the flow.
If using Depot Separation:
Ensure that withdrawals precede deposits when moving coins between wallets.
Use the depot flow view in the tax report to verify correct sequencing.
Final Note
Every sale must have a cost basis.
To ensure consistent balances and accurate tax reports, always import your full transaction history across all exchanges and wallets. All calculations are based solely on the data you’ve provided.