Hi there 👋
It is possible that during the analysis, the first page is displayed with negative balance warnings.
Summary :
What is a negative balance?
A negative balance warning is generated when a transaction seems impossible according to the information you have provided us, in other words, it is when you tell us to take out more cryptocurrencies than you have in stock.
Example: You withdraw 2 ETH from your account when you only have one in stock according to the information you provided us.
Negative balance warnings are generated on a token / platform pair. Therefore, they will always be listed by token AND by platform.
Example: Negative balance of 2 ETH on Coinbase.
Why the warning?
This warning is generated because we need to know your total balance, i.e. the total value of your portfolio.
Indeed, the total value of the portfolio is one of the three components of the capital gain calculation:
Having a negative balance means that your stock of a cryptocurrency on a platform is less than 0 at a time T. Which is technically not possible.
What creates a negative balance?
There are 3 reasons for a negative balance warning:
1 – One or more deposit transactions are missing on Waltio
2 – One or more withdrawal transactions are present “in excess” (double / triple…) on Waltio
3 – Some transactions are not posted in the right order (a withdrawal posted before its deposit, for example) on Waltio
To know if you are in situation 1, 2 or 3, you will have to look at your stock sheet.
How to simply correct a negative balance?
Step 1: Identify the source of the negative balance
- Situation 1: One or more deposits are missing
When you add a platform, you must add all your transactions made on this platform.
Therefore, it is necessary to check that Waltio correctly reads all the transaction types of the platform on which you have a negative balance. To do this, go to the article dedicated to the platform in question.
Example: Deposits related to Launchpad participation on Binance are not read by the API. So, to see them appear on your account, you need to add the Full Statement file.
If the missing transaction type is not supported by Waltio, then you will need to create the transaction manually, via a Waltio file or compensate.
If you think it's a transaction present in your file/API but not read by Waltio, contact us via the Chatbot at the bottom right of your screen and give us as much information as possible about your situation.
- Situation 2 : One or more withdrawals are in excess
In 99% of the cases, it is related to a duplicate transaction, for example, if you added a file and an API for a platform and the transaction is present in both.
To identify it, it's very simple. Go to the “My Transactions” page and filter on the platform and the token like this:
Then sort by date, by clicking on “Date” :
Two transactions of the same amount, involving the same tokens, and made at the same time are likely to be a duplicate. If you are not sure, check your account on the platform.
- Situation 3: Transactions are not posted in the correct order
In 99% of the cases, it is a withdrawal that appears before a deposit. In this case, you need to filter as in situation 2 to identify the anomaly. Once found, the withdrawal should be brought forward so that it is counted before the withdrawal.
Example: In my Coinhouse file, all the transactions of the day are posted at the same time. This creates negative balances because my withdrawal of 2 ETH is read before the deposit of 3 ETH. To correct this, I will advance the deposit by 5 seconds so that it is read by waltio before the withdrawal.
Step 2: Correct the negative balance
- Solution 1: Compensate.
During the analysis, you have the option to compensate your negative balances:
When you compensate, you create a compensating deposit. This is a deposit equivalent to the maximum amount of the negative balance encountered on a token and on a platform created at a date prior to that of the first negative balance on this token and this platform. We have just written an article on this subject.
Overall, situation 1 is the only case in which you can compensate for a negative balance without fear of seeing your portfolio overvalued.
- Solution 2: Delete or modify transactions.
Once the anomaly has been detected (Step 1, situations 2 and 3), it should be corrected by deleting or modifying one (or more) transactions as the case may be.
- Solution 3: Add the missing transactions.
Whether manually or via a Waltio file, the most thorough solution is to add the missing transactions to Waltio. This is also the most time-consuming solution.
🎉 Congratulations, you have correctly corrected your negative balances!
Here is some additional information for more specific cases:
1️⃣ We recommend renewing your APIs keys if they are old (more than 6 months). This may be the reason some transactions are missing, as we are constantly improving the tool and the way it reads transactions. If you haven't done too many transactions, please add a new one or contact us.
2️⃣ We do not show negative balances of less than -€10. The reason is simple: to reduce the number of small negative balances that are time-consuming to find and compensate. It is likely that they will be displayed on the stock sheet but not on the analysis page. Don't worry, they have a negligible impact on the calculation of your surplus value.
3️⃣ A Waltio file that is not correctly filled out can create negative balances. Indeed, if column I “Exchange / Platform” contains the name of the platform other than in this table (in upper case), the transaction will not be read.
4️⃣ Tips: if you have a lot of negative balances on different tokens but on the same platform, the reason for the negative balance is probably the same for all tokens. Example: I have negative balances of BTC, ETH and DOT on Binance.
On the other hand, if you have numerous negative balances by the same token but on different platforms, then there is no particular correlation. You will have to correct them one by one.
5️⃣ If you have negative balances on a wallet, it is likely that it is due to unread bridge transactions. In this case, follow this article.
6️⃣ A deposit may be flagged as a negative balance warning.
Example :
01/01: Balance 0 BTC : Withdrawal of 2 BTC → negative balance of 2 BTC
02/01: Balance -2 BTC: Deposit of 1 BTC → negative balance of 1 BTC
If you have any other questions, do not hesitate to contact us via the chat just at the bottom right of your screen! 💬
The Waltio Team