Lately I’ve been thinking about the whole “never sell” mentality in crypto, and I’m starting to question whether HODLing has quietly turned into a trap for some people.
We often celebrate those who have been holding since 2017 without ever selling a single coin. But it makes me wonder, what is the actual end goal?
There seems to be this unspoken pressure to never take profits because nobody wants to be remembered as the person who sold too early. At the same time, I see people sitting on life-changing gains on paper while still living the exact same life they were living years ago. They keep waiting for the next moon, even though they already have more than enough profit to change things for themselves.
If the purpose of investing is to eventually improve your life or give you more freedom, then at what point does holding forever stop being a smart strategy and start becoming a way to stay stuck on the sidelines?
I’m genuinely curious how others balance the HODL philosophy with actually using the wealth they’ve built. Do you have a clear exit plan, or are most people just planning to hold indefinitely?
I’d really like to hear how people justify never selling when the gains are already there.
Is "HODL forever" actually a trap we’ve set for ourselves?
byu/AntSuccessful3890 inBitcoin
Posted by AntSuccessful3890
11 Comments
The OGs who sold in the last 6 months would agree with you. I’ll bet they didn’t sell all of their stash though.
The end goal is not to sell it, but to eventually use it as currency, as it will be preferred over all other payment methods.
look up “sunk cost fallacy”, that’s what HODL is called in traditional investments… 🙂
Sure, as long as BTC never goes to ATH again.
Everyone who has ever predicated that in the last decade has been wrong, but you know, maybe this time!
You could say the same thing about literally any stock or asset. Its like “well, if this is all the higher the DJIA is gonna go, then holding stocks is a trap!”
It’s the difference between speculators looking for a lottery ticket a people who are fed up with fiat money.
The former are saying “never sell” because they want to pump their bags. The latter are saying “never sell” because they simply consider Bitcoin to be the superior store of value and wouldn’t consider going back to something else as a store of value. Therefore, there is no such thing as an “exit plan” when you consider Bitcoin to be the standard. Bitcoin is the exit plan from fiat.
But obviously, the point of any store of value is that you can and will probably exchange it against goods and services at some point. Maybe you use it to buy a house, maybe you use it to pay for rent after you’re retired, or to treat yourself with a nice holiday on a tropical island. Nothing wrong with that.
But that’s the thing, you’ve still got the mentality of “taking profits”…
Bitcoin **is** the asset you should be holding your “profits” in, not exchanging it for a form of money that is constantly diluted, devalued, and debased.
For most Bitcoin holders, we look forward to a day where we can use our Bitcoin directly in exchange for goods.
And if we sell, it’s usually only because we *needed* to have fiat for some life event.
I invest in things to become financially independent. The end.
If you can’t sell your BTC because of some rule people made up about it then you haven’t really freed your mind now have you.
No, because we see the future, we’re visionaries unlimited promises backed by unlimited pieces of paper can never be kept.Governments keep printing more and more paper every day. there can only ever be 21,000,000 Bitcoin.
I use bitcoin as a savings account with high upside. I buy btc weekly with a long term approach. I will sell one day but no intentions anytime soon
I had about 1.2 bitcoin. I sold a bit and painted my house and other home improvements. Still holding about half