Unlike most people in the Bitcoin cash community, am only just a year old in the Crypto space and BCH happened to be the first cryptocurrency that I own and will continue to hold going forward. I have tried to own other cryptocurrencies but they have not been favorable for me. I used to own Tron tokens which I bought from an exchange but lost all in a smart contract ROI platform on the Tron blockchain. Even the little amount of BTC I earned on a survey site is as good as useless in my exchange wallet due to a high transaction fee. Too bad for BTC.
My crypto portfolio is all in BCH, majorly my earnings on read.cash and some other sites. I have not taken any interest in trading, so I only Hodl, with the hope that it will keep increasing in value. The Hodling culture or mentality is not a thing for a newbie to crypto. The perplexity, anxiety, and emotional unrest that comes with volatility is more than a faint heart can bear especially if they have investment in cryptocurrency. This is where it seems to many outside the crypto space that cryptocurrency is a scam.
There are various reasons people enter the crypto world. Even those of us who have the privilege to earn BCH for writing also have different reasons or purposes for the BCH they earned. Some are earning just to meet their daily needs, some are earning to meet future needs, like paying off a debt, school or college fees, and a more other earned with the future in view. Among the three groups, only the last is on a Hodling culture others are saying to spend. The purpose is different. When we are talking about HODL is not actually for everyone, those who are saving for a short time to meet a need should not embrace the Hodling mentality, because when the market crash they can not control themselves, and they suffer much loss by selling their coins under anxiety. That said, let get back to the subject of this article.
As said above, my crypto portfolio is all green in BCH, and I have been able to save a good amount. Note that I used the word "save" and not "Hodl" to show a difference in the purpose. I saved and spend BCH always. The more I earned the more I save and spend as well.
I have not witnessed a market crash before, this, which happened on the 18th of May was so shocking to me. I was all happy and confident seeing how BCH has improved in value. Almost a triple increase in my portfolio value? I walked with my hands in my pocket feeling like a king knowing the value of my BCH wallet. For your information, $1k is half a million in country currency and I was having multiple of that in my wallet. You can guess how I must felt seeing the rise in value.
Before the crash, I have discussed with my wife about the increase and how I wanted to sell some to meet to cover some expenses around the house. And that was in the morning. Three hours later, on trying to execute my plan, my wallet was down. To use the word that I was shocked would be an understatement. I felt traumatized with a cold feeling that ran down my spine. Emotionally, I was broken, psychologically I felt like running mad. Worse of it, there's no way I can relate the discovery to my wife. She has been urging me to do what we wanted to do with the money before this event but I kept telling her to be patient with the hope that BCH will increase in value more.
It's been three days now, I still can't tell my wife why I have not got the money to do the things we have planned to do. This is why I said earlier above that the Hodling mentality is not for a newbie to crypto and those who are mainly saving to meet a need.
What lessons have I learn from all this
As the market gradually undergoing a correction, these are what I have told myself.
If you are earning BCH to meet a need do not embrace the Hodl mentality to avoid being heartbroken.
Know your purpose in saving BCH. If you are saving with the future in mind, you must learn the Hodling culture and get your metal jacket on in case of a market crash.
Do not save all your earning in crypto. Convert some to your local currency and save in your bank account to meet your needs.
Never say Hodl when you are actually saving, know the difference. And do not save more than you can keep. Hodling crypto is not something that you do and runs back to your wallet when you are short of cash. When you are a hodlers you don't sell until you achieve your Hodling goal.
Learn to take action when so needed. This is for investors who bought BCH, a little is better than nothing. Do not be carried away by greed for more gain which you can not predict.
If you are living on BCH learn to take profit along as BCH keeps rising in value.
Finally, know that cryptocurrencies can not achieve a stable value this time as adoption is still very far away. As uses of cryptocurrencies use cases are still hugely on speculation value will never be stable until use cases are more on adoption in real-time uses.
You can see what my experiences about the recent market crash opened my eyes to understand from the above. As said earlier, am still inexperienced in the crypto space and have not learned the Hodling culture fully. I was only saving my BCH and not a hodlers.
That is why I just have this mentality to keep a fixed amount of BCH into my wallet, and when the market is increasing, I quickly convert the margin to my fiat currency). I don't have a Hodl mentality as well.