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Cryptocurrencies and tokens in general have prices that vary widely over time. In particular, over the years they make big rises and big falls, but for Basic Attention Token (BAT) the situation is a bit different.
The relative stability of Basic Attention Token
Basic Attention Token (BAT) debuted in the crypto markets as early as mid-2017, which was before the big bubble of the previous cycle was triggered.
Its debut price was $0.17, and until December of that year it merely fluctuated between $0.08 and $0.24. This is actually quite a wide fluctuation band, since $0.24 is three times $0.08, but cryptocurrencies have accustomed us to far greater swings.
With the great speculative bubble of late 2017 and early 2018, its price skyrocketed to $0.8, or ten times the previous months’ low. But it was short-lived, because within just over two months the price was already back near the initial $0.17.
In other words, the first bubble on the price of BAT lasted very little, and did not even cause its price to skyrocket to absurd levels, as happened to other cryptocurrencies at the time.
At that point began a very long period of lateralization that lasted almost three years in which its price never fell below $0.10 again, with rare spikes above $0.30. Which is to say that even then the fluctuation band was proportionally the same width as it was in the last months of 2017.
Such a regularity is very rare for a cryptocurrency, partly because everything happened in those three years, including the collapse of global financial markets due to the onset of the pandemic.
Beginning in January 2021, the last big bubble began to inflate, thanks to which the price of BAT skyrocketed to an all-time high of $1.90 in November of that year.
That was a much longer bubble, lasting almost a year and not merely a little over a month like the previous one.
After exceeding $1 twice, in March and November 2021, the price of Basic Attention Token in 2022 simply went back to where it started, which was around $0.30 in June.
It then fell again, particularly in November 2022 after the FTX fiasco, to an annual low of $0.16 in late December.
In other words, after returning to $0.30 in June 2020, it began a new long period of lateralization between $0.16 and $0.47, which is within a fluctuation band of very similar proportions to the previous two.
The regularity of BAT
So unlike other cryptocurrencies, the price trend of Basic Attention Token so far has been characterized by long periods of lateralization alternating with speculative bubbles formed in conjunction with large bull runs in crypto markets.
Most strikingly, the three periods of lateralization have all been characterized by swings within a band formed by a minimum price that has increased over time, and a maximum price that has almost always been three times the minimum.
The first period was characterized by a minimum price of $0.08, the second by a minimum price of $0.10, and the third by a minimum price of $0.16. From this point of view, in just over five years, the minimum price of the lateralization band has only doubled.
In other words, excluding periods when a speculative bubble inflated, due to external reasons since it formed on the entire crypto market, the price of Basic Attention Token has always lateralized within a wide band three times the minimum price, only to end the lateralization when a new bubble.
When the bubble ended, it always resumed lateralization, but starting from a somewhat higher minimum price.
What is Basic Attention Token?
This curious trend, very different from that of all major cryptocurrencies, may be due to the nature of the Basic Attention Token.
BAT is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, used within the Basic Attention Token-based advertising platform. It is a blockchain-based digital advertising platform designed to reward website users for their attention.
It all takes place on the Brave browser, where users can watch ads to receive BAT rewards, and advertisers can offer targeted ads to maximize yield and reduce losses due to advertising abuse.
The thing is, the BAT token is the currency with which rewards are both disbursed and ad campaign space is purchased.
This generates continuous exchanges in the free market that mean that there is always a fundamental use of it.
Therefore, regardless of any speculative bubbles, the demand for BAT tokens in the market is almost always there, as is the supply, and this reduces its sharp price fluctuations.