I have been hearing the term HODL in the cryptospace from the beginning. I guess many of us wouldn't have bothered to google it since we know what it is going to mean. Today i was actually planning to write a post on Why we should HODL but then i thought to myself that atleast today i should check what HODL exactly means before using it in the title of my post :-)
What is HODL?
I was thinking that HODL will be an abbreviation where H stands for Hold/Holding but couldn't make up anything for O, D & L especially since the letter C was missing which could have meant coin/crypto/cryptocurrency. When i actually googled it for possible abbreviations i found things like 'Holding On to your Dear Life' which did not make any sense in cryptospace. It was surprising for me to find out that it was actually a misspelled word. Yes, a misspelled word which the whole world is using now. Here is how it happened. Back in December 2013, an author named GameKyuubi wrote a post on a Bitcoin Talk forum named 'I AM HODLING' and didn't bother to correct the typo. Community instantly made this term famous and started using it like an actual verb. Even Amazon selling a tshirt similar to Nike where the tick is replaced with a graph and changed the phrase from JUST DO IT to JUST HODL IT.
Why to HODL?
We have been seeing a downtrend in the cryptospace in this month where the global market cap fell from $830 Billion to $450 Billion. Many people are fearing that it this is a bubble burst but it is not and it is the future. Due to various regulatory reasons in China and South Korea many big investors withdrew their cryptos. Not to mention, we saw one of the biggest hacks in crypto history where around $530 million were stolen from coincheck exchange. People get scared seeing such news. It took ages for people in Japan to start investing again in crypto after the Mt Gox hack in 2014 where $400 million were stolen. So clearing regulations and fear were causing the money to flow back from cryptospace to traditional space. But lets look at certain facts on why there is a increased downtrend and why one should HODL now.
Lunar New Year (China)
Lunar New Year is one of the biggest festivals in China. More like a Christmas in the west. So people in China spend a lot of money on travel and gifts. It is true that most of the people including me have put all/most of the saving in the cryptospace thinking that the money will get doubled, tripled, 10x and 100x. Also since there is no penalty for withdrawing into Fiat, many of us put all their money to work in cryptospace. Lunar New Year is actually very important for the people in China so it is said that many people converted their cyrpto into fiat to spend for travelling to meet the family and to buy gifts for the family. This theory makes sense and justifies to an extent on why there is an increased downtrend apart from the fluctuations which can be created by the Whales.
Tax Returns (USA)
People in US have started filing the US Tax returns and most of them will start receiving the tax returns in a few weeks. As far as i can tell, on a average, 75% of the money from Tax returns will flow into cryptospace. Hence we will see a gradual uptrend from Mid Feb which will start to peak and hopefully the global market cap will cross $800 Billion by March end or Mid April.
Conclusion
HODL, HODL & HODL. I know it is difficult to see everything in Red in coinmarketcap, but one need to think long term. But do not HODL on to crap coin. Crap coin are only good for pump and dump. Only hold on to.. oops sorry i meant to say HODL on to the coins which is worthy like Cardano, Wabi, INS etc... and definitely you won't regret your decision.
