To hold or not to hold, this is the question

Joao Chávez
4 min readMar 6, 2021
Holding my hand forever

Like Hamlet (yes, the tormented in Shakespeare’s play) was debated to continue living or not, many crypto investors are debating if keeping their currencies “saved” (or not), in the expectation of an increase in their value, and thus making a profit.

This is what is called holding in the crypto world, which is nothing more than keeping one or more cryptocurrencies for a long period without selling them. This is the most popular strategy used in the crypto market because for most investors it is easier than trading cryptocurrencies, that is, you buy cheap and then sell when the crypto price goes up because to be able to do this successfully certain specific knowledge is required.

If we take into account that in February 2021 Bitcoin reached the value of $50,000, and remember that by 2010 it could be obtained for less than a dollar, it can be easily concluded that the cryptocurrency holding can become very profitable. So, this fact was a reality, and as such, it can happen again, at any time.

Holding or trading?

While both stocks have the same goal of generating profits, each has its characteristics. To be a Holder you don’t need much knowledge because it’s simply about buying cryptocurrencies at the best possible price and then saving them in a safe place. Instead, to be a Trader you have to educate yourself, study the market, and develop strategies based on data, statistics, and future estimates, since when buying and selling cryptocurrencies there is also the risk of losing. This is not to say that holding no knowledge is needed, since the Holder must also investigate what are the best projects to invest in the long term, how are its communities, its work teams, its use cases, what is the solution that is proposed for the future, etc. to make the best decision.

Well, let’s list some of the most potential cryptos to HODL (the crypto term for holding):

Bitcoin: Being the oldest cryptocurrency, it has the largest community of developers and investors to support it for further growth. Also, it is easy to buy Bitcoin as it is backed by all major exchanges and wallets. Also, Bitcoin is being adopted in the conventional economy. Microsoft, Bloomberg, Overstock.com, Expedia.com, and many others accept BTC payments.

Ethereum: It is the second most valuable cryptocurrency after Bitcoin, and is the most popular blockchain-based platform for building smart contracts, something that is considered the next big deal in the cryptocurrency universe. It also provides this platform to launch Initial Coin Offerings (ICO) for other blockchain projects. Most of the 5.6 billion dollars for ICO in 2017 were launched on Ethereum blockchain.

Cardano: Cardano, like Ethereum, has developed as a platform for decentralized applications and smart contracts and is supported by an academic community of global researchers and scientists who contribute to the development of its blockchain. It currently has a capacity of 257 transactions per second and is working to achieve full interoperability, meaning it can interact with different cryptocurrencies and their infrastructures smoothly.

Divi: This currency, presented by Divi Project is becoming increasingly regarded as one of the most promising altcoins with better prospects for holding and long-term investments, because of the strong developments it is generating and has been seen as they have positively influenced their value in the market, that has been increasing consistently. The DiviWallet 2.0 is already in beta and is expected to make a big impact with its ultimate release for the multiple features it has. Moreover, DIVI offers staking and is the leader in innovation with its 5 levels of masternodes that allow people of different income levels to own one, not only produces large numbers, but also valuable rewards that have a high ROR. It also has various use cases like https://divisyrup.com/ and https://divithreads.com/, plus gift cards and its FinTech, which produce the demand for the coin and this is what will help the currency gain value over time.

Ripple: It is a very unique cryptocurrency, as it focuses on solving problems related to a single industry: international payment transfers, which can cause them to occur in seconds, with considerably lower fees compared to what financial institutions and other cryptocurrencies charge. Its team can offer the best solutions aimed at this particular industry and is one of the few cryptocurrency platforms being tested in the real world, establishing strategic ties with many important financial institutions.

EOS: It is one of the cryptocurrencies that is among the top 10 cryptocurrencies, with a highly experienced team with a proven track record. It has a platform for developers to build decentralized applications and smart contracts, but with a big improvement in technology, and is supposed to be much more scalable than Ethereum because it uses an advanced mechanism to verify transactions, being able to achieve between 10,000 and 100,000 transactions per second.

CURIOUS FACT: To refer to holding action is used the backronym HODL which is a term that was born of “hold” and which later became, “Hold On for Dear Life”. It is perhaps the most popular term in the field of cryptocurrencies, and it began as a simple spelling error. In 2013, a member of the Bitcointalk forum wrote a post explaining why he would keep his tokens, even though markets were trading down at the time. However, he mistakenly wrote “hodling” instead of “holding”. This error became very popular and ended up evolving in the backronym HODL.

Well, now that what the holding is has been clarified, we must implement this strategy that is the simplest and least risky but has still given many benefits to those who have chosen to follow it. Sometimes, even above those who have spent years analyzing the markets to try to determine the right time to buy and sell cryptocurrencies. Start HODL now!

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Joao Chávez

Hijo de Dios, docente, ingeniero, cocinero y aprendiendo de criptomonedas