DCA FINANCE / Research
How trading fees changed Bitcoin DCA in this fixed period
A reproducible comparison of Bitcoin DCA schedules and one upfront purchase with an equal budget. Fee assumptions, result tables, source snapshot and calculation exports.
Evgeniy Volkov ·
One budget, five schedules, two fee assumptions
This comparison covers 61 days of Bitcoin purchases, from Sep 5, 2026 to Nov 4, 2026 UTC. Every row uses the same $610.00 budget, available in full at the start. Purchase timing and fees change; the total capital does not.
The period was selected because an existing verified, immutable snapshot was available. It was not chosen to prove that DCA wins. This is one short-period example, not a study of long-term returns.
What this example shows
At the illustrative fee of 0.5% plus $1.00 per purchase, the daily schedule makes 61 purchases and pays $64.05 in fees. A single upfront purchase pays $4.05 under the same formula.
A fixed fee takes a larger share of small, frequent purchases. Fees paid and the reduction in final value are different quantities: money deducted as fees also stops participating in Bitcoin price changes.
Discuss this study
Send the inputs and results to your own chat. Transaction ledger entries are excluded.
What the assistant receives
Only the text below, its numbers and links are shared. This does not grant access to your screen, account or ledger. For Gemini, Claude, Grok and long prompts, paste the copied text into the chat that opens.
Connect with MCP
Connect your assistant
Choose a client. All calculations use the same HTTPS endpoint; setup depends on the application.
Codex
Run these commands in your installed CLI client. They add the remote MCP server; this page does not execute commands on your computer. Public tools need no token or model API key from DCA Finance.
codex mcp add dcaFinance --url https://dca-finance.com/mcp
codex mcp listAfter connecting, ask the assistant to call get_methodology. To discuss your budget, provide the copied context; the server does not gain access to your ledger or account.
Scenario 1: no fees
Each purchase deducts 0% plus $0.00 from its allocation. These are comparison assumptions, not an exchange quote. Fees are included in the total budget, not added on top. The upfront purchase uses the same formula.
Scroll the table horizontally to see all results.
| Schedule | Buys | Allocation per buy | Fees paid | Final value | Period return | Value lost to fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | 61 | $10.00 | $0.00 | $606.32 | -0.6% | $0.00 |
| Weekly | 9 | $67.777778 | $0.00 | $608.24 | -0.29% | $0.00 |
| Every two weeks | 5 | $122.00 | $0.00 | $609.76 | -0.04% | $0.00 |
| Monthly | 2 | $305.00 | $0.00 | $593.29 | -2.74% | $0.00 |
| One purchase at the start | 1 | $610.00 | $0.00 | $617.64 | +1.25% | $0.00 |
“Value lost to fees” compares the same schedule with and without fees at the same final price. “Period return” is measured against the entire budget; it is neither annualized return nor XIRR.
Scenario 2: illustrative trading fees
Each purchase deducts 0.5% plus $1.00 from its allocation. These are comparison assumptions, not an exchange quote. Fees are included in the total budget, not added on top. The upfront purchase uses the same formula.
Scroll the table horizontally to see all results.
| Schedule | Buys | Allocation per buy | Fees paid | Final value | Period return | Value lost to fees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Daily | 61 | $10.00 | $64.05 | $542.66 | -11.04% | $63.66 |
| Weekly | 9 | $67.777778 | $12.05 | $596.23 | -2.26% | $12.02 |
| Every two weeks | 5 | $122.00 | $8.05 | $601.71 | -1.36% | $8.05 |
| Monthly | 2 | $305.00 | $5.05 | $588.38 | -3.54% | $4.91 |
| One purchase at the start | 1 | $610.00 | $4.05 | $613.54 | +0.58% | $4.10 |
“Value lost to fees” compares the same schedule with and without fees at the same final price. “Period return” is measured against the entire budget; it is neither annualized return nor XIRR.
How to reproduce the calculation
Count the scheduled purchases in the period, then divide the total budget equally between them. Monthly purchases follow the starting day of the month, not the first calendar day.
Use the latest quote at or before each scheduled purchase. Deduct the fee from its allocation, then divide the remaining USD by the Bitcoin price. No future quote is used for a purchase.
Sum the acquired units and value them at the last observation: 2026-11-04 23:00:00 UTC. The requested end boundary is 2026-11-04 23:59:59.999Z. No extra quote is invented between those timestamps.
Equal allocations can contain fractions of a cent. The model keeps full precision; the table rounds displayed values and CSV retains unrounded numbers. Exchange minimums, lot sizes and cash-rounding rules are not modelled.
Unspent cash earns no interest. Spreads, slippage, taxes, selling fees and currency conversion are excluded. Final value is an asset valuation, not net cash after selling it.
When contributions come from future paychecks, the entire budget is not available upfront. A full-budget purchase on day one is then not a feasible alternative. Check income and contribution dates in the dashboard.
Source, version and limits
Market data: CoinGecko. 1464 Bitcoin observations quoted in USD are used from the saved series; this is not a BTC/USDT pair.
Calculation and comparison: DCA Finance. The fingerprint verifies the integrity of the saved series; it is not an independent audit of every market quote.
- Comparison method
dca-fees-equal-budget-1- Snapshot ID
cdebe296efb8e1d1bbec929695b5b8ff5871ad992c58f9ac66d69d4bc806c1e0- Price-series SHA-256
90baf9dc5dcc55a95de443a92fc0ba63dd6ed9beb4022e377953e4d86b1fff63- Report edition SHA-256
222ceab277c6025e50475a85f744dc34a058f761e8060ac953cce76008439f34- Snapshot verified by server
- 2026-11-05 15:08:06.569Z
These results describe only this asset, period and calculation rules. They do not establish that one schedule is best over the long run or predict future profits. Such conclusions need predefined multi-year periods, multiple market regimes and separate data checks.
Calculation methodology and model limits · Original saved backtest
Download or cite these results
CSV contains the calculated comparison rows. JSON includes assumptions, provenance and the same results. These downloads do not redistribute a new raw price series. Use the method, fixed snapshot and fingerprint to check the calculation.
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