All-Time Highs, Lows and Drawdowns: Reading Crypto Price History

Every coin page on Leveraged Weekly shows an all-time high (ATH) and an all-time low (ATL), and the market snapshot tells you how far the current price sits below the high. These figures are a compact summary of a coin’s history — and a reminder of how volatile crypto can be.

All-time high and all-time low

The all-time high is the highest price a coin has ever traded at, as recorded by the data provider; the all-time low is the lowest. Both are reported in your display currency. Because exchange coverage and early trading records vary, the exact figures can differ between sources, especially for the first days of a coin’s life, when trading was thin.

An all-time low often dates from those earliest days, when a coin was barely traded. That makes it a weaker reference point than the all-time high, which usually reflects a period of heavy trading and broad attention.

What a drawdown is

A drawdown is how far the price has fallen from a previous peak, expressed as a percentage:

Drawdown = (current price − all-time high) ÷ all-time high × 100

If a coin peaked at $100 and now trades at $40, its drawdown is −60%. Drawdowns of 70% to 90% have happened repeatedly to major cryptocurrencies during bear markets, and many smaller coins never regain their peaks at all.

The recovery problem

Losses and gains are not symmetrical. After a fall, the price has to rise by more than it fell just to get back to where it started, because the rebound begins from a lower base:

Gain needed = 1 ÷ (1 − drawdown) − 1

A coin that is down 90% must rise tenfold to return to its high. That is why a coin can post a spectacular percentage gain and still sit far below its record — and why limiting losses matters so much more than the size of any single gain.

Reading price history on Leveraged Weekly

On a coin page, the market snapshot states how far the price is below its all-time high, or notes when it is trading within 1% of it. Combine that with the 7-day chart and the 1h, 24h and 7d change columns to see whether a coin is recovering, falling further or moving sideways.

A coin near its all-time high is in uncharted territory, with no earlier price level at which previous buyers might be waiting to sell. A coin deep in drawdown has many past buyers holding at a loss. Neither situation predicts the next move, but both help explain why price behavior can differ so much between the two.