The Basic Attention Token (BAT) has more than doubled in value over the past two months, and enthusiasm reached an apogee when the digital advertising coin became the seventh cryptocurrency to be listed on Coinbase. The BAT price is at its highest level since the summer, but can it keep it up?
The BAT price began September at the tail-end of a month-and-a-half slide in the coin’s value. Individual tokens traded at around $0.13 by September 7th, the lowest value since August the year before. The coin steadily rose in value throughout the rest of September, picking up the pace in mid-October as rumors over it being the next Coinbase listing began to circulate. The price spiked last Friday, after the exchange made the announcement, with the rise continuing into Monday.
Via CoinMarketCap.
BAT is currently at $0.32 per token with a total market cap of $317m, at the time of writing. This represents a 143% increase in the BAT price since the beginning of September.
The Coinbase listing of the Basic Attention Token
The Basic Attention Token is a cryptocurrency designed to run on the Brave Browser, a privacy-orientated internet server. Adverts are blocked by default with users able to opt-in, should they choose. Brave works off the blockchain and collects user data, anonymously, which helps tailor ads.
The idea is that users are likely to interact with ads for goods and services appropriate to them. Marketing firms reimburse platforms that host ads with BAT, as well as users who opt-in to receive them, creating an equitable advertising model.
Coinbase, one of the most popular fiat-crypto gateways around, updated its listing policy over the summer. Coins are to be listed more frequently, with a report published in June suggesting the main focus was on ERC20 tokens.
The BAT Coinbase listing was not so much of a surprise for the community; BAT, an ERC20, was already a usable asset on Coinbase’s Toshi Wallet. The project has not had any run-ins with regulators – not even with the SEC – and has seen a marked increased in users, from 1m in December to 3m by the middle of July.
BAT price: merely a spike?
Coinbase listings are held up as the gilded accolade for most projects: the ultimate achievement. David Thomas, director and co-founder of GlobalBlock, a London-based cryptocurrency brokerage firm, argues the listing gives the coin a “huge” advantage over other projects. He believes the high-profile and legitimacy will give it wider approval within the sector.
“There is no doubt for me that moving a crypto onto listings such as Coinbase will have a hugely positive effect as the exposure it gains almost gives it added legitimacy”, Thomas said. “[However] whilst the price has doubled, this is nothing unusual for coins with relatively small market caps, and the overall price is still relatively low.
“The news will undoubtedly help validate to the market that the coin is unlikely to be a scam or of a spurious nature,” he added.
Coins normally spike in value following a high-profile listing. But these gains are ephemeral. That the BAT price has doubled is in itself not surprising, but the question is whether it will be able to maintain itself at that level. Coinbase listings can sometimes be the good PR a project needs.
The project works in the world of digital marketing; they’ll be hoping last week’s development is the advertorial they need.
Disclaimer: The author is not invested in any cryptocurrency or token mentioned in this article, but holds investments in other digital assets.
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