How are DCA returns calculated?

Prices are Yahoo Finance adjusted closes (dividends reinvested, splits applied). Investments on market holidays execute at the next trading day's close (T+1). For stocks, daily/weekly schedules deduplicate when multiple dates roll to the same trading day. IRR is computed via bisection on cashflow NPV.

What happens on weekends and holidays?

Stock investments scheduled on weekends or holidays execute at the next trading day's closing price (T+1 policy). Bitcoin trades 24/7, so BTC investments execute on the exact scheduled date.

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Bitcoin · DCA Calculator

How much would you have if you had dollar-cost averaged?

Pick a frequency and amount. Adjusted historical Bitcoin closes, T+1 execution. Every calculation has its own shareable URL.

If you invested $500/month in Bitcoin from 2021-07 to 2026-07...

$46,522

grown from $30,000 invested over 5.0 years. +$16,522 (+55.07%)

Growth over time

Dashed line: cumulative invested · Solid line: portfolio value

Investment schedule

Per investment: $500.00
Frequency: Monthly
Window: 2021-07-23 → 2026-07-23
Duration: 5.0 years
Number of investments: 60
× $500.00 each

Results

Total invested: $30,000
60 × $500.00
Final value: $46,522
as of 2026-07-23
Total return: +$16,522
+55.07%
Annualized (IRR): 17.75%/yr
compounded over 5.0 years

Embed this chart on your site

Paste this into your blog post or article. The chart stays live — it always shows the latest data for this exact scenario. Free to use with the attribution link.

<iframe src="https://www.dcaretro.com/embed/dca/bitcoin?amount=500&frequency=monthly&start=2021-07-23&end=2026-07-23" width="100%" height="480" style="border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px;" loading="lazy" title="Bitcoin DCA chart — DCARetro"></iframe>
<p style="font-size:13px;margin-top:4px;">Chart: <a href="https://www.dcaretro.com/dca/bitcoin?amount=500&frequency=monthly&start=2021-07-23&end=2026-07-23">Bitcoin DCA Calculator</a> by DCARetro</p>

$500/month Bitcoin DCA by start year

Quick-jump to a prebuilt scenario. Each page shows what a $500 monthly DCA into Bitcoin would be worth today if you'd started in January of that year.

Since 2024 Since 2023 Since 2022 Since 2021 Since 2020 Since 2019 Since 2018 Since 2017 Since 2016 Since 2015

What if you'd bought the top?

Worst-case entry, backtested: a monthly DCA into Bitcoin started on the exact peak day, versus a lump sum on the same day.

The 2021 top (-77%)The 2017 top (-83%)

How we calculate this

Prices are Yahoo Finance adjusted closes (dividends reinvested, splits applied).
Investments scheduled on market holidays execute at the next trading day's close (T+1 policy). Bitcoin trades 24/7, so BTC investments execute on the exact scheduled date.
For daily and weekly schedules, when multiple scheduled days roll forward to the same trading day (e.g., Saturday + Sunday both land on Monday), we count one investment on that day, not two. Daily DCA on stocks works out to ~252 executions per year; on Bitcoin, 365 per year.
IRR is computed via bisection on cashflow NPV, annualized from monthly cashflows.
All dates are treated as UTC. Prices are NYSE closing prices (for stocks) or UTC 24-hour closes (for Bitcoin).