- Crypto enthusiasts are celebrating the tenth anniversary of the famous ‘HODL’ meme
- The origins of the famous typo have become lost over time, but the meaning has been borne out
- As the crypto community marks the meme’s milestone, its roots and enduring resonance are explored
Crypto fans have been celebrating the tenth anniversary of the famous ‘HODL’ meme, a drunken rant whose core message has been proven stunningly accurate in the ten years since. Even those who don’t know how the famous term originated, or what its deeper meaning suggests, understand the basic concept, although the vagaries of time have led to its meaning and conception becoming distorted. As its tenth anniversary is celebrated, we look at where the term actually came from and why it resonates with the crypto community so much.
“I AM HODLING”
The origin of the term HODL comes from a post on the BitcoinTalk forum dated December 18, 2013, titled ‘I AM HODLING’. BTC had hit $1,150 just two weeks prior, but had spent the time since in a steady decline following China banning banks from handling crypto-derived funds, dropping to $420 on the day itself, at which point the following post appeared on the forum:
This post has now become a legendary call to arms for anyone who is faced with huge losses following a crash in the Bitcoin price, which all newcomers have done at one time or another. The message resonated (and still does) because it managed to encapsulate the emotions of a novice trader, the reality of trading an asset as volatile as Bitcoin, and the ultimate faith that the writer has in Bitcoin itself.
The term ‘HODL’ quickly took off and became a stock phrase for keeping faith in your holdings during testing times and is still widely used today. Presuming the poster did indeed HODL his bitcoin and didn’t sell out as it plummeted all the way down to $183 later that year, he would have been richly rewarded, with Bitcoin now at $43,000. This is the final unwritten message in the blog: Bitcoin always comes back.
The Wisdom of HODL
The question of whether HODLing really is the smartest move is debatable, however, and depends almost entirely on where the asset is in the market cycle. Blindly holding a coin at the start of a bear market is not the greatest idea (assuming you know that one is starting), but doing so at the start of a bull market is the best way to make money, but it requires a great deal of faith (as we see from the HODL post).
Even if you do buy something at the top of a cycle, history tells us that your investment will eventually come good in time…until it doesn’t.
