What is ATH Crypto and Why Does It Matter?
ATH stands for “all-time high” when discussing a cryptocurrency project or any other financial instruments. What this means in the broader financial market sense is that the price of an asset is the highest price that the asset has ever received on a cryptocurrency exchange. In the crypto market, a new ATH has the same meaning, but let’s get a little more specific as to what is ATH crypto, how it relates to the crypto industry, and discuss what this metric can mean.
What is ATH Crypto Price As It Relates to Traditional Markets?
In traditional financial markets, the quantity of a company’s stock does not fluctuate day-by-day and would only be able to change (by stock split or additional shares issued) with announcements from the company.
Basically, the price is strictly based on investor outlook, since the issued shares do not frequently change. This is due to very high protections and laws in place, which are regulated by organizations such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), among others. Everything (at least ideally) must be by the book, announced ahead of time, and renounce insider trading.
Cryptocurrency is too new of an industry, so these laws are not yet in place and the market is a bit of the Wild West.
What is ATH Crypto Price As It Relates to Bitcoin?
Crypto ATH: Price
What is the meaning of ATH as it relates from a traditional market to a crypto ATH? Well, in most ways the answer is really the same. However, it varies in different ways simply by the concept of crypto assets and the structure of the crypto market itself.
As we discussed, a traditional company cannot issue more shares of the company without announcements, filings, and everything else that goes along with that market update. However, such as is the case with the Bitcoin network, almost 1000 new Bitcoin are being released each day!
Crypto ATH: Market Capitalization
There is an argument to be made with a digital asset like Bitcoin that the highest value of all time should be calculated using the overall market capitalization, rather than the sheer maximum price.
This is because of that issuance model where more digital currency is being released to the market each day, somewhat diluting the total value of the coins that are currently on the market. (About) every four years, the issuance of Bitcoin is split in half until there are 21,000,000 total Bitcoin in circulation.
As an example, there were about 2.6 million Bitcoin created in each of the first four years following creation of the genesis block of Bitcoin. Now, there is only a little over 300,000 created each year. This will be split in half again sometime in 2024, so there will only be 150,000 created each year. Finally, in 2140, all the Bitcoin that will ever be created will be in circulation.
At the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is down from it’s record highs in November 2021 by an astounding 69%! But, as we are arguing above, the price of a cryptocurrency is not all that matters. It’s supply schedule is another large factor, and the overall market cap could be more beneficial than price charts.
How Can Accounting for ATH Price Help An Investor?
Between a previous ATH, current ATH, and the opposite of ATH (all-time low), there is usually a new phase of price discovery. Not that this is investment advice, but we’ve found that around this time and during crypto winters are the best time to stockpile governance tokens of these cryptocurrencies.
Nobody has any idea what is going to happen in any market (at least in the near term), but by reading a cryptocurrency’s white paper, doing your own research, and assigning a theoretical potential from the first time an investor is jumping into the market, an investor could be much better positioned.
Final Thoughts on What is ATH Crypto
As we are seeing, simply asking what is ATH crypto is not as simple as it may seem on the surface. You have to take into account the supply schedule, the total cryptocurrencies in circulation, the price and price potential, and the value those figures can provide to decide what to do in your portfolio.
But, armed with that information, you are going to be well on your way, and asking what is ATH crypto is a great place to start!
