Basic Attention Token, or BAT, has posted a sharp countertrend rally in October, climbing from $0.078 on Sept. 13 to $0.205 on Oct. 13, a gain of more than 124% over the period. The steepest move came in the final week: BAT rose 34% on Oct. 9, perpetual futures open interest jumped 60% on Oct. 10, and the token added another 10% within a single hour on Oct. 13.
Over the same stretch, BTC fell 1% and total crypto market capitalization declined 1.5%, making BAT one of the clearer outliers in the market.
Price rose while funding stayed negative
The most notable signal in BAT’s move was not just the price increase, but the fact that perpetual funding rates remained negative as the token kept climbing.
Negative funding means short positions were more crowded than longs, with shorts continuing to pay longs. When price rises under that setup, short sellers can be forced to close positions, and those exits turn into fresh buying pressure. That is the standard shape of a short squeeze.
Still, the market structure was not uniformly bullish. Data from Oct. 10 showed open interest surging 60% in a single day, pointing to a rapid influx of leveraged positions. By Oct. 12, BAT was still moving higher, but trading volume had fallen 16%. That suggests spot demand was fading in the later stage of the rally while leverage was taking over. RSI also reached 87.91, placing the token in deeply overbought territory.
Two readings of the same setup
In most fast rallies, funding rates turn positive because long positions become crowded. BAT moved the other way: price rose, but funding stayed negative, showing that shorts were still adding or refusing to close.
That leaves two competing interpretations.
- The bullish reading is that spot demand was strong enough to keep squeezing shorts, and negative funding shows short sellers were still trapped. In that view, rising open interest alongside negative funding suggests the squeeze may not be over.
- The cautious reading is that some traders may be waiting for higher levels before selling into strength. If spot buying runs out, leveraged longs could become the first side exposed to liquidation.
Brave’s narrative reset for BAT
The backdrop to the rally is a sequence of product and narrative updates from Brave over the past three months.
On July 9, Brave released BAT Roadmap 4.0, its biggest roadmap revision since 2017. The update repositioned BAT from a token tied to ad rewards into what Brave described as attention payment infrastructure for the AI era.
The roadmap laid out four product tracks.
- First, support for the x402 protocol and Machine Payments Protocol, or MPP, aimed at enabling AI agents to execute micropayments inside the Brave browser.
- Second, BravePay, described as a privacy-focused stablecoin payment protocol layer supporting self-custody, .brave addresses, and stablecoins compliant with the GENIUS Act.
- Third, the Brave Rewards Card, a physical payment card that would let users earn BAT through spending and also use BAT in everyday purchases, extending the token’s utility beyond the browser.
- Fourth, the Creator Contribution Protocol, designed to automatically send micropayments through BAT’s blockchain ledger when AI platforms use creator content for training or inference.
On Aug. 3, Brave opened the waitlist for the Rewards Card. It was the first concrete product step after the Roadmap 4.0 release, though the company did not disclose an issuing partner or launch regions.
In early October, BAT was also discussed as a candidate chain-key token for Internet Computer, or ICP. If implemented, that would give BAT native cross-chain integration and broaden its use cases.
Taken together, those moves point to the same goal: shifting BAT from a browser-based rewards token toward a cross-platform payment token. AI micropayments, offline card spending, creator compensation, and cross-chain integration all serve that broader repositioning.
Spot demand started the move, leverage became more visible later
Price action shows a market that changed character as the rally developed.
BAT rose 34% on Oct. 9, moving from $0.094 to $0.131. It added another 16% on Oct. 12 to reach $0.175. On Oct. 13, the token touched $0.205, up 33% over 24 hours. On the daily chart, BAT completed a swing structure shift from bearish to bullish and broke above two key resistance levels: the May high at $0.127 and the February high at $0.139. Trading volume reached $51.7 million during the advance, confirming active buyer participation.
But the composition of that move changed. As price kept rising into Oct. 12, volume dropped 16%, suggesting weaker spot participation in the later phase. Combined with the jump in open interest and an RSI of 87.91, the setup raised doubts about how much of the rally was still being driven by cash buying rather than leverage.
What BAT still lacks
Even with BAT trading around $0.20, the token remains far below prior cycle levels.
BAT’s all-time high was $1.939 in November 2021. At current levels, it is still down 90% from that peak. Even after the latest 124% rebound, BAT is only recovering from a depressed base and remains about 35% below the local high of $0.302 seen in January 2026.
Its market capitalization stands at about $300 million, placing it around No. 120 on CoinMarketCap. For a token launched in 2017 and tied to Brave, a browser with more than 50 million monthly active users, that valuation is still compressed. Brave’s Leo AI has already integrated models from Anthropic and Meta, so the project does have a live product base and an existing user footprint.
That said, the higher-premium themes in Roadmap 4.0 are still mostly at the planning stage. The Rewards Card has a waitlist but no issuance timeline. BravePay exists as a white paper concept without code. Support for x402 is described as coming soon, but no date has been given.
Q4 execution is the next test
Whether BAT’s rebound can turn from a sentiment-driven move into a valuation rerating now depends on execution.
If Brave launches an actual Rewards Card product in Q4, or brings out a BravePay MVP, the rally could gain firmer fundamental backing. If the next three months bring little beyond a roadmap and a waitlist, the 124% move may end up offering shorts a better entry rather than confirming a lasting revival.
The article was published by PANews and reflects the view of a contributing columnist, not the outlet’s formal position. It does not constitute investment advice.