HODL
A misspelling of 'hold' that became crypto's most sacred doctrine. Retroactively backronymed to 'Hold On for Dear Life.' The investment strategy of doing absolutely nothing, elevated to religion.
Lab Classification
Specimen type: Investment philosophy / community doctrine First observed: December 18, 2013, BitcoinTalk forum Current prevalence: Foundational crypto vocabulary; will outlive most cryptocurrencies Contagion vector: Forum typo → screenshot → adoption → ideology → identity
Patient Zero
Unlike most internet slang, HODL has a verified origin with a precise timestamp. On December 18, 2013, at 10:03 AM UTC, a BitcoinTalk forum user named GameKyuubi posted a thread titled “I AM HODLING” while Bitcoin was crashing from $716 to $438.
The post was written while the author was, by their own admission, drinking whiskey. It contained the immortal lines:
“I type d that tyitle twice because I knew it was wrong the first time. Still wrong. w/e.”
GameKyuubi went on to explain their thesis: they were a bad trader, they knew they were a bad trader, and so the optimal strategy was simply to not trade at all. The logic was airtight. The spelling was not.
The thread went viral. Within hours, “HODL” had replaced “hold” in the crypto lexicon permanently. It has never been corrected. It never will be.
Retroactive Backronym
Sometime in 2014, the community decided that HODL actually stood for “Hold On for Dear Life.” This is revisionist history. It was a typo by a drunk person on a forum. But the backronym was too good to fact-check, so it stuck.
This retroactive meaning-assignment is itself a meme about how crypto culture works: the narrative is always more important than the truth, and if enough people repeat something, it becomes canon.
Behavioral Analysis
HODLing is the dominant investment strategy in crypto, not because it’s the most sophisticated, but because it’s the most accessible. The full decision tree:
- Buy crypto
- Don’t sell crypto
- That’s it. There is no step 3.
This simplicity is the source of its power. In a market defined by complexity — yield farming, leverage trading, cross-chain bridges, liquidity provision — HODLing offers the radical alternative of doing nothing.
The Doge community is perhaps the most committed HODLing population in crypto. When your investment thesis is a Shiba Inu with Comic Sans inner monologue, there’s no technical analysis that can shake your conviction. You either believe in funny dog or you don’t.
HODL vs. Diamond Hands
Laboratory analysis frequently receives requests to distinguish HODL from diamond hands. The difference is subtle but real:
- HODL is a strategy — the conscious decision to not sell, regardless of market conditions
- Diamond hands is a trait — the psychological capacity to watch your portfolio crater without flinching
You HODL because you have diamond hands. Or you have diamond hands because you HODL. The causality is circular. The outcome is identical. The community doesn’t care about the distinction.
Cultural Impact
HODL has achieved what few internet terms manage: complete escape from its original context. It now appears in:
- Financial media — Bloomberg and CNBC use it without explanation
- Merchandise — T-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers, tattoos (permanent HODLing)
- Legal documents — At least one cryptocurrency exchange has used “HODL” in official communications
- Everyday speech — “I’m HODLing this job until I find a better one”
The Wojak with the smiling mask, calmly HODLing while his portfolio disintegrates, has become the defining visual of the HODL experience. The external composure. The internal screaming. The absolute refusal to open the sell tab.
“I AM HODLING.” — GameKyuubi, BitcoinTalk, December 18, 2013. The most influential typo since ‘covfefe.’
See also: diamond hands (the trait required to HODL), WAGMI (what HODLers tell each other), wen lambo (what HODLers ask each other).