All-Time High (ATH)

An all-time high (ATH) marks the highest price a cryptocurrency, or an investor's entire portfolio, has ever recorded on the market, whether that is a single trade on one exchange or an aggregated figure pulled from data across many venues. Because an ATH is a running record rather than a fixed target, it moves upward every time a new record trade clears, and it can stand untouched for years if a bull run stalls.

Traders track how far a price sits below its ATH using a "drawdown" percentage, a common shorthand for gauging where a coin is in its market cycle. Bitcoin's ATH is $126,210.50, reached on 6 October 2025 during a rally fuelled by ETF inflows and institutional buying; Bitcoin's price has since pulled back well below that peak. Ethereum set its own record near $4,950 in August 2025, finally clearing its 2021 high after nearly four years.

Breaking an ATH often triggers a wave of media attention and fear of missing out (FOMO), pulling in new buyers just as early holders start taking profits, a combination that frequently produces a sharp pullback soon after. A large drop from an ATH is not automatically a bargain either: many tokens hit their record during speculative manias with little real usage behind the price, so the peak itself, not the current price, was the anomaly. Comparing an ATH against the all-time low (ATL) gives a fuller picture of an asset's full price range and volatility.