HODL shows up in crypto conversations as a misspelling that refuses to disappear. You stop reading, wondering if the writer made a mistake. They did, but the mistake stuck. Now it describes a coherent
HODL shows up in crypto conversations as a misspelling that refuses to disappear. You stop reading, wondering if the writer made a mistake. They did, but the mistake stuck. Now it describes a coherent investment philosophy and trading strategy for crypto believers. eToro, the social trading platform, built its latest campaign around this term with actor Kristian Nairn to explore what it actually means.
HODL stands for "hold on for dear life." The phrase captures an approach to investing where you refuse to sell even when positions crater, trusting that widespread adoption eventually rewards patience.
The word originated on December 18, 2013, when someone named GameKyuubi posted a rant to the Bitcoin Forum. Bitcoin had nosedived 40 percent in a single day, tumbling from $716 to $438. CoinDesk reported that Chinese authorities had moved against crypto exchanges, triggering the panic. After drinking whiskey, GameKyuubi typed: "I AM HODLING" and explained the reasoning. The botched spelling morphed into memes comparing investors to Spartans from 300 and the warriors in Braveheart. A slurred forum post became crypto culture's rallying cry.
HODL shed its memetic origins and took shape as a serious investment thesis. By 2017, Quartz identified it as a cornerstone term in crypto culture, defining the HODL mentality as the commitment to "stay invested in bitcoin and not to capitulate in the face of plunging prices."
Real money changed hands over the HODL question. Ronald Wayne, Apple's third co-founder working alongside Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, sold his 10 percent stake back to the other two co-founders for $800 in the mid-1970s. Apple crossed $1 trillion in market value in August 2018. Had Wayne held that stake, it would fetch around $100 billion now.
Amazon showed the same pattern. The stock opened at $18, crashed to $1.50, and sent early shareholders fleeing toward the exits. It trades near $1,700 today. Real estate and crypto markets both contain examples where HODLing would have paid off handsomely.
Jay Smith works as a trader for eToro. He describes his style as rooted in "fundamentals, future and HODLing." On crypto's potential, he says: "I've always been a fan of automation, futurology and transhumanism. On top of that, I am interested in politics, ideology and economics. Cryptocurrencies are a melting pot for all of these things, experimenting with new economic models, governance models, moral and ideological models and offer massive advantages over the systems they aim to replace."
Smith elaborates: "I firmly believe that cryptos will change the world, replacing stock markets, most currencies and powering everything from machine-to-machine payments and the Internet of Things through to streaming media, prediction markets, governance systems, voting systems, even potentially the internet. That being said, there is a long way to go, we are in the very early stages for most of these areas."
eToro launched in 2014 as a regulated multi-asset investment platform. The site now offers access to 12 cryptocurrencies: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, XRP, Litecoin, Ethereum Classic, Dash, Stellar, NEO, EOS, Cardano and IOTA. Users can trade crypto-to-crypto and crypto-to-fiat pairs and hold both traditional assets like stocks and digital assets in one place. eToro bridges traditional investing and the blockchain transition.
eToro operates as a multi-asset platform offering stocks, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs. CFDs are complex instruments with leverage that intensifies losses. About 65% of retail investor accounts lose money trading CFDs with this provider. Before you trade CFDs, understand how they work and whether you can afford to lose your capital. Cryptocurrency prices fluctuate between broad ranges and aren't appropriate for all investors. No EU regulator oversees cryptocurrency trading. Past results don't predict future outcomes. HODL is not investment advice. Your capital is at risk.
