Unable to parse Default Var on ALTER TABLE

[Bloodiko]

I tried writing a transform script with this library for my table as I require it to have a new value.

So i used

sql`ALTER TABLE rewrite ALTER COLUMN token SET DEFAULT ${variable};`;

I tried this query in multiple different ways.
I tried setting the Default directly while ADD COLUMN.

None worked.
The Result was always Postgres Error 42P18 -
Query became
ALTER TABLE rewrite ALTER COLUMN token SET DEFAULT $1;

Even though i actually did use the variable without quotes, which usually produce this error.
Also, I did use the same variable in 2 other queries before, which did work as intended.

Not sure why ALTER TABLE does not like the DEFAULT setting here. ?

Why is $1 not transformed to the correct value for the given sql Query above ?