What is all-time high (ATH)?

The highest price an asset has ever traded at, quoted per exchange and per currency, with the all-time low as its mirror.

Different data sources publish different figures because they track different exchanges and start dates. Neither number tells you anything about future price; see volatility.

The figure gets used as if it were a property of the asset. It is a property of a dataset. Change the venue, the currency, or the aggregation method and the number changes, which is why two sites can report different record highs for the same coin on the same day.

How it works

There is no official price for a crypto asset. Each venue runs its own order book, so the same asset trades at slightly different prices in different places at the same moment, and a thin venue can print an outlier that a deep one never sees.

Aggregators build a reference price by combining venues, usually weighted by trading volume. Whether a given wick counts toward the record depends on whether that venue was in the index at the time, which is a methodology choice rather than a fact about the market.

Currency matters too. An asset can set a record against one national currency and not against another on the same day, because the exchange rate between those currencies moved. Records quoted in a weakening currency arrive earlier.

Start dates matter for older assets. Data for the first years of a coin's life is often incomplete, so some series begin at the first listing on a major venue rather than at the first trade anywhere.

Example

Illustrative: an asset prints $104.20 for two seconds on a small venue during a liquidity gap, while the deepest venues top out at $101.60. An aggregator that includes the small venue reports a record of $104.20; one that excludes it reports $101.60. The difference is 2.6%, and neither number is wrong. It reflects a different question about which prices count.

Why it matters when you buy

The practical use of a record high is as context for how far a price has moved, not as a target or a floor. What actually affects your fill is how deep the book is at the moment you buy, which is a different measurement entirely. Check that at the liquidity pages before sizing an order.

Related terms

• volatility — how far prices move over a period
• market cap — price multiplied by circulating supply
• trading volume — what aggregators weight venues by
• bull market — the conditions in which records cluster
• bear market — the long stretches below one
• index price — a blended reference across venues

Questions

Why do two sites show different all-time highs?

Because they index different exchanges, weight them differently, and started collecting data at different times. Each is internally consistent; they are answering slightly different questions.

Does a new record mean the price will keep rising?

No. A record simply means no higher trade has been recorded. It carries no predictive content, and RampAtlas does not forecast prices.

Should I use the record high to decide when to buy?

That is a personal decision RampAtlas does not advise on. What we can say is that the number tells you about past trades, not about the cost of your order today, which depends on the spread and depth you actually face.