Exactly five years ago yesterdatm on December 18th, 2013, the famous ‘I AM HODLING’ thread appeared on the BitcoinTalk forums.
User ‘GameKyuubi’ asserted how they were ‘HODLING’ Bitcoin in the midst of price crashes because “I’m a bad trader” and you “only sell in a bear market if you are a good day trader or an illusioned noob.”
As of press time, the original post had been read 789,530 times.
Around the time of the post, Bitcoin had fallen from $716 to $438, most likely after reports of a purported Chinese crackdown surfaced. Across 2013, Bitcoin surged from less than $15 in January all the way to more than $1,100 at the start of December.
I Am Hodling
GameKyuubi admitted the now-legendary post came after he “had some whiskey.” It is believed to be the first time ‘HODL’ was used, which is most likely just a misspelling of the word ‘hold.’
HODL is widely known and used inside of the cryptocurrency world as a term for those who are largely holding cryptocurrencies for the longer term rather than just trading based on short-term price swings.
To HODL Or Not To HODL
Amid big price slumps in 2018, some people have grown weary of holding onto their cryptocurrencies and losing money.
One network administrator at Near East University in North Cyprus decided to give Binance users a way out if they tire of trying to push through bear markets.
CryptoGlobe reported on the creation of Ilker Dagli, who built a big red sell button that will liquidate all of a person’s holdings for either Tether (USDT) or Bitcoin. Dagli said the button would be popping up on other exhanges, like Bittrex and Bitfinex, in the future.
The question of holding on to cryptocurrencies or selling them has also come up for people in the United States in light of taxation questions.
CryptoGlobe recently reported how traders who hold for more than a year are usually able to qualify for taxation based on “long-term capital gains” of 0-20%, while trades and investments categorized as ordinary income would be subject to a rate of 10-39.6%.
The tax reform bill at the start of 2017 also made cryptocurrency trades applicable to “like-kind exchange” exemptions, presenting another big accounting headache for traders inside of the United States.
