Market Data Guide

Overview

The Market Data tab is where you populate the prices PrivateACB uses to convert your transactions into your reporting currency. Every taxable disposal needs a price on the disposal date; every income receipt (staking, mining, airdrops) needs a price on the receipt date; every foreign-currency trade needs a fiat exchange rate on the trade date. If any are missing, ACB calculations are blocked.

There are two kinds of price data:

1. Exchange rates — fiat-to-fiat conversions (USD → CAD, USD → AUD, etc.) — needed when your exchange traded in a different currency from your tax jurisdiction.
2. Cryptocurrency prices — crypto-to-fiat prices on a specific date — needed when your transaction has no recorded purchase price (income receipts, swap legs without a base price, etc.).

Caution

As of v2.7.6, imports no longer pre-populate price data. The Market Data tab is now the sole populator of the asset_conversions table that feeds the calculator. After every import, visit Market Data and click Fetch — earlier builds did this for you silently at import time, but doing so meant fetching prices for the wrong jurisdiction in some scenarios (B112). The current behaviour is explicit and jurisdiction-correct.

Why market data matters:

• Tax authorities require figures in your local currency (CAD / USD / AUD / GBP)
• Many exchanges trade in USD even for non-US users
• Income transactions (staking, mining, airdrops) have no purchase price — the engine values them at FMV on the receipt date
• Missing market data blocks ACB calculations at the preflight stage

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The Two Sections

The Market Data tab renders top to bottom:

1. Exchange Rates — assets that need fiat conversion appear here
2. Cryptocurrency Prices — assets that need historical crypto prices appear here
3. Recent Imports footer — the last 10 fetches across all sources, for verification

Each section uses the same pattern: an asset table with status indicators, a per-asset Action menu, and inline panels that slide in when you start an import.

Day-based vocabulary

PrivateACB caches one rate per asset per day. The asset table reads in those terms:

• “3 days needing rates” means three calendar days have transactions but no cached rate
• “15 days cached” means fifteen calendar days have a rate stored
• “Date range: 2024-03-12 → 2025-11-08” covers every day the asset has any transaction activity

This is a deliberate shift from older “missing dates” language. A day-by-day model matches how tax authorities expect FX conversion to work — one rate per disposal date — and gives you a precise progress count.

Jurisdiction-aware asset filtering

The asset table filters by what your currently selected jurisdiction actually needs:

• CA: shows assets whose transactions priced in non-CAD currencies need rate conversions
• US: shows assets whose transactions priced in non-USD currencies need rate conversions
• AU: shows assets whose transactions priced in non-AUD currencies (CoinGecko serves AUD natively, so often fewer rows here)
• UK: shows assets whose transactions priced in non-GBP currencies

If you switch jurisdictions in the dashboard controls, the asset table updates to match. An asset that needed USD/CAD conversion under CA may not appear under US — your transactions were already priced in USD natively.

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Exchange Rates Section

Three input methods

Each row’s Action menu offers three ways to populate rates for that asset:

Method	When to use	Setup
Bank of Canada (CA) / Federal Reserve (US) — API fetch	Default for the listed jurisdiction. Fast, official, no manual work.	BoC: no key needed. FRED: free API key required.
CSV upload	Custom rate sources, unsupported currency pairs (EUR/GBP/etc.), or working offline.	Format documented below.
Manual entry	One-off corrections or rare currency pairs without an API source.	Inline modal lists the missing days; type a rate per day.

When you click an Action, an inline panel slides in below the row showing the suggested date range, source-specific options, and a Fetch button. The panel computes the date range from your actual transaction dates — there’s no risk of fetching outside what you need.

Bank of Canada (Canada)

Free, no API key. Provides the official daily noon rates that CRA accepts for tax filings.

1. Select 🍁 CA - Canada (CAD) in the jurisdiction selector
2. Find the asset in the Exchange Rates section
3. Click Action → Bank of Canada
4. Confirm the date range (auto-suggested from your transactions)
5. Click Fetch Rates from Bank of Canada

Rate limit: 10 requests/minute. PrivateACB queues requests automatically.

Federal Reserve / FRED (United States)

Requires a free API key (one-time setup). Provides H.10 daily reference rates.

1. Get a key: FRED API Registration — fill the form, copy the key.
2. Configure in PrivateACB: Settings tab → Data Sources → Currency API Configuration → Federal Reserve → Configure → paste key → Test → Save.
3. Fetch rates: Market Data → Action → Federal Reserve → confirm date range → Fetch Rates.

Rate limit: 120 requests/minute.

CSV upload

Supports any currency pair the file specifies. PrivateACB accepts the format below; column order is auto-detected.

date,from_currency,to_currency,rate
2024-01-01,USD,CAD,1.3500
2024-01-02,USD,CAD,1.3525
2024-01-03,USD,CAD,1.3480

Column	Format
date	YYYY-MM-DD
from_currency	3-letter ISO code
to_currency	3-letter ISO code
rate	Decimal — units of to_currency per 1 unit of from_currency

Action → CSV Upload → drop or browse the file → review preview → Import.

Manual entry

For one-off rates or unusual currency pairs that have no API source.

Action → Manual Entry opens a modal listing every day the asset needs a rate. Type the rate inline; Enter or ↓ / ↑ moves to the next row. Click Save when done.

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Cryptocurrency Prices Section

The Cryptocurrency Prices section shows assets whose transactions have no recorded price — staking rewards, airdrops, deposits without a purchase event, swap legs that came in without quote currency. PrivateACB needs a market price to value these in your reporting currency.

Two sources, auto-routed

Source	Best for	API key	Coverage
CoinGecko	Recent prices (last 365 days, top 100+ coins)	Free demo key required	365 days on the demo plan
CryptoCompare	Historical prices (dates older than 365 days, broader coin coverage)	None required	Back to 2010 for most coins

When you click Fetch Prices on an asset, PrivateACB auto-routes each missing day to whichever source can serve it — recent days go to CoinGecko (if a key is configured), older days fall through to CryptoCompare. The before-fetch dialog shows the per-source split (e.g., “CoinGecko: 180 days, CryptoCompare: 45 days”).

A Fetch All Missing button does the same for every asset on the table at once.

CoinGecko setup

1. Get a key: CoinGecko API — sign up for the free Demo plan, copy the key (it starts with CG-).
2. Configure in PrivateACB: Settings → Data Sources → Currency API Configuration → CoinGecko → Configure → paste → Test → Save.

Demo plan limits: 30 calls/min, 10,000 calls/month, 365 days of historical data.

CryptoCompare (no setup required)

CryptoCompare works out of the box without an API key. Free tier: 100,000 calls/month — well above what most users will hit. An optional API key in Settings raises the cap if you have a very large dataset.

Manual entry

For assets neither source supports (typically tiny altcoins or experimental tokens), the Action menu offers Manual Entry. The modal lists every day the asset needs a price, asking for the price in your reporting currency. Use Enter or ↓ / ↑ to move between rows.

Where to find historical prices manually:

• CoinGecko website — search the asset, open Historical Data, find the date
• CoinMarketCap — historical charts back many years
• The exchange’s own trade history — often the most reliable source for niche coins

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Status indicators

Both sections use the same status semantics:

Status	Icon	Meaning	Action
Complete	✅	All required days have data	None — ready for calculation
Partial	⚠️	Some days missing	Click Action → fetch the gaps
None / Needs	🔴	No data at all	Click Action → fetch immediately
Unavailable	⚪	Asset not on either price source (crypto only)	Use manual entry

An asset disappears from its section the moment it reaches Complete — the table is a working list, not an inventory.

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Recent Imports

The footer shows your last 10 imports across all sources, jurisdictions, and asset types:

Recent Imports
🍁 USD → CAD | Bank of Canada | 365 rates | 2 hours ago
🦎 BTC/CAD | CoinGecko | 180 prices | 1 day ago
📁 Manual CSV | 45 rates | 3 days ago
✏️ SOL/CAD | Manual entry | 8 prices | 5 days ago

Icon	Source
🍁	Bank of Canada
🏛️	Federal Reserve (FRED)
🦎	CoinGecko
🔵	CryptoCompare
📁	CSV upload
✏️	Manual entry

Useful for verifying that a fetch actually landed in the database — particularly after a slow or partial fetch where the on-screen status is ambiguous.

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API Configuration Summary

Settings → Data Sources → Currency API Configuration is the single place to manage the two keys PrivateACB uses:

Service	Key required	Where to get it	Stored as
Federal Reserve (FRED)	Yes (free)	fred.stlouisfed.org/docs/api/api_key.html	DPAPI-encrypted in Windows Registry
CoinGecko	Yes (free demo plan)	coingecko.com/en/api	DPAPI-encrypted in Windows Registry
Bank of Canada	No	n/a	n/a
CryptoCompare	Optional (raises rate limit)	cryptocompare.com/coins/guides/how-to-use-the-api/	DPAPI-encrypted if provided

API keys are never saved in your encrypted database file — they live in the Windows Registry under DPAPI, which is bound to your user account on this machine. If you move databases between machines, you’ll need to re-enter the keys on the new one.

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Workflow

The end-to-end flow Market Data participates in:

1. Import transactions via the Import wizard
2. Open Market Data — the asset tables now show what’s missing
3. Fetch / upload / enter rates and prices until both sections clear
4. Open the ACB Calculator — preflight should now pass
5. Calculate — the engine reads from asset_conversions (populated by Market Data) and market_rates (populated by the same source)
6. Generate reports — figures match the dashboard

If preflight blocks at step 4 with “Cost basis is unknown for a transfer-in”, that’s a different problem (an unmatched deposit, not missing prices). See the Preflight Errors Guide for resolution.

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Troubleshooting

”Missing conversion rates” warning on the dashboard

You have transactions whose dates lack a fiat rate. Open Market Data, look at the Exchange Rates section, and fetch the gaps. The dashboard re-checks on every refresh.

Asset shows ⚪ Unavailable

The asset isn’t on either CoinGecko or CryptoCompare’s supported list. Use Action → Manual Entry and source prices from the asset’s own page on a price aggregator or the exchange you bought it on.

”0 rates imported” after a fetch

The rates already existed for those days — duplicates are silently skipped. Confirm by looking at the Recent Imports footer; the prior import is listed there.

”Connection test failed” when configuring an API key

Verify the key is correct (CoinGecko’s starts with CG-; FRED’s is a 32-character hex string), check internet connectivity, and wait one minute before retrying — most transient failures are upstream rate limits.

Imported the rates but ACB still fails

Two common causes:

• Wrong jurisdiction — you fetched USD→CAD rates but the active jurisdiction is the US (which needs the inverse). Switch jurisdiction or fetch the correct direction.
• Asset prices missing too — Exchange Rates and Cryptocurrency Prices are independent. An asset can have all its FX rates and still need a crypto price for a staking-reward day.

Fetch is slow

Long date ranges naturally take time. The progress indicator updates as days are fetched. PrivateACB queues requests under each API’s rate limit; there’s no manual tuning to do.

Recent Import shows fewer rates than expected

The fetch hit a non-trading day or a holiday and the source had no data. Bank of Canada has no rate for weekends; FRED skips US federal holidays. Surrounding days flow through normally — for the gap day specifically, the calculator falls back to the prior trading day’s rate.

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Best Practices

1. Set up API keys before your first import. FRED + CoinGecko take five minutes each. Doing this once means every subsequent import is one-click.
2. Visit Market Data after every import. Imports no longer pre-populate prices. Make this a reflex.
3. Don’t pre-fetch. PrivateACB only asks for rates and prices on dates you actually have transactions for. Pre-fetching a year “just in case” costs API credits and accomplishes nothing.
4. Confirm via Recent Imports. A fetch that looks successful but isn’t reflected in Recent Imports is a clue that the source returned no data. Re-check the date range.
5. Use CSV upload for bulk corrections. Easier than typing 30 manual rates one at a time.
6. Switch jurisdictions to verify cross-coverage. If you file in two jurisdictions (e.g., dual citizen), each needs its own rate set.

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Quick reference

Need	Source	Where in PrivateACB
USD → CAD rate	Bank of Canada	Market Data → Exchange Rates → Action → Bank of Canada
CAD → USD rate	FRED	Market Data → Exchange Rates → Action → Federal Reserve
Recent crypto price	CoinGecko	Market Data → Cryptocurrency Prices → Fetch
Old crypto price (>365 days)	CryptoCompare (auto)	Same — auto-routed to CryptoCompare
Custom rate set	CSV upload	Market Data → Action → CSV Upload
Niche altcoin price	Manual entry	Market Data → Action → Manual Entry

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Related guides

• Crypto Price Fetching Guide — Deeper dive on the CoinGecko + CryptoCompare auto-routing
• Preflight Errors — Resolving issues that block calculations
• Database Management — Where your fetched rates live
• Canadian ACB Calculation / US / AU / UK — How the engine consumes market data

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Last Updated: May 2026 PrivateACB Version: 2.8.1