"Bitcoin's ATH will at least double after the next halving" "This coin is 90% down from its ATH, NGMI" "I cashed out at Doge's ATH". Were you ever puzzled by this acronym that is so frequently encountered in crypto lingo?
Worry no more! Not only will we examine what it means, but we are also going to take a deep dive into how to analyze this metric and incorporate it into your trading strategy.
What is All-Time-High?
In the crypto world, an all-time high (ATH) refers to the highest price a cryptocurrency has ever hit during its trading history. An opposite to the all-time high is the all-time low, which stands for the lowest price an asset has ever reached.
Crypto enthusiasts often look to ATH as a benchmark for the coin's future performance, tracking its movement to gauge if and when it might reclaim that level. When the asset reaches a new ATH, it signals a strong bullish sentiment, fueling greed and a speculative frenzy in the market. However, it's also worth keeping in mind that many aspiring crypto investors are often overzealous when it comes to calling the next ATH — during the last bull cycle, many analysts forecasted Bitcoin at $100,000 or even $500,000. So far, such sky-high prices failed to materialize.
Significance of ATH for crypto traders
While ATH at its core is a very simple metric, it is nevertheless an integral piece of the trading strategy puzzle. A savvy crypto investor should know how to check and analyze ATH levels alongside other fundamental and technical indicators to make informed decisions. So, what can you learn from the all-time high for any particular asset?
Psychological Significance: reaching new ATH can trigger FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) among potential investors who might believe the asset could continue to appreciate, adding more fuel to the bull run. This can lead to increased buying pressure for a particular asset.
Resistance Turned Support: In technical analysis, current ATH often serves as a significant resistance level. Once it's broken, it can turn into a support level, with the price potentially bouncing back from this point in future downturns.
Correction estimate: once the upward trend exhausts itself, the asset usually experiences a correction, which is measured in % of the loss from its ATH value. The past performance of the given cryptocurrency and its falls from previous ATH can provide an insight into how much correction to expect, which enables investors to carry out more precise risk management.
ATH vs ATL
The opposite of ATH is ATL, or, as you probably guessed already, the all-time low, which marks the lowest price point that a given crypto has ever reached. Just as ATH can serve as a landmark for the asset's growth and potential, ATL represents its most challenging periods.
However, even the all-time low has its utility in financial analysis. Investors and analysts often examine the ATL to understand the asset's risk and volatility, as well as to identify potential buying opportunities during market downturns. It’s important to remember, though, that just like with ATHs, ATLs provide historical data, and the golden rule of investing is that past performance is no guarantee of future results.
What was the all-time high of Bitcoin and Ethereum?
Bitcoin and Ethereum reached their all-time high in November 2021, trading at $68,789 and $4,891, respectively. At the time of writing, Ethereum is down 62% from its ATH, while Bitcoin is down 57%.
While such price swings would be considered extreme in stock trading, it's not uncommon for digital assets to experience corrections of more than 70%. During the bear market, altcoins can even correct up to 99%, which is definitely a thing worth keeping in mind when investing in this type of crypto.
That being said, the sharp drop from their respective all-time highs does not necessarily spell the end for Bitcoin or Ethereum. Crypto assets are notorious for their unpredictable price movements that are often influenced, among other things, by changes in market sentiment, regulatory news, macroeconomic factors, and shifts in institutional interest. For this reason, an aspiring crypto investor shouldn't focus solely on the technical analysis aspect — it's often worth paying attention to fundamentals as well.
Where to look for ATH of crypto assets?
Now, when you've got a good understanding of what is ATH and how to analyze it, you are probably wondering where you can find such data. Well, search no more, for I have brought you three reliable sources where you can check ATH and basically any data for a given cryptocurrency!
CoinMarketCap is the most-referenced price-tracking website for all assets in the ever-growing crypto industry. This platform is a go-to source for all important metrics on any given cryptocurrency, including market capitalization, sentiment leaders, best exchanges, and historical price performance.
CoinGecko is another cryptocurrency data aggregator that tracks the prices of all crypto assets across multiple exchanges. While CoinMarketCap mainly focuses on price discovery, CoinGecko offers a wider range of information, including liquidity, developer activity, and community growth.
CoinCodex is a crypto tracking platform where users can easily access and browse through detailed and accurate data and analytics on more than 15,000 crypto assets across all major centralized and decentralized exchanges, including such key metrics as 24h trading volume, market cap, sentiment, fear & greed index, and others.
Bottom line
At its core, ATH is more than just the highest price point of a certain asset — it's a versatile tool that, when used correctly, can equip traders with a more insightful understanding of market dynamics and sentiment. At the same time, a cautious investor should always keep in mind that ATH does not provide a guaranteed forecast for future performance and can be only used to make approximate estimates, since the entire crypto industry is inherently volatile and unpredictable.
