Exactly, the only way to protect it is just to HODL. But no make mistake about it, practicing HODLing is tough as well as other may have thought. That's why you will see some holders panic when there is a crash, because once you see your assets going down, it's not not to think of protecting it by selling. So it is advisable to just sit and relax, on the contrary buy more during dip and just HODL for as long as you can.
Holding your coins can definitely protect you but there is one big problem with holding and it is that the time needed to recover your money can be very long especially if you bought at a high price, this means that only the ones that believe in the technology of bitcoin will be able to hold for that long while those that only were interested in making money will eventually fold to the pressure and will sell for a bad price, and once they do they will never recover the money they lost.