"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even

[Zlantann]

hoarding since 2012

my reasons:
dont need the lump money yet(think retirement fund)
i support bitcoin
i see bitcoin has longevity so no need to "get out early"

that said i do take very small % of holdings out for my yearly living expenses. but thats small fry.
if i was to take the hoard. there are tax implications so for now i just enjoy my life, travel the world and when i want to settle in a place of better climate(tax haven) and do my own thing. then ill think about selling it all.. but no time soon. there are decades to go in my bitcoin life

What? Since 2012?  I am glad to hear from an old-timer who still has access to his Bitcoin hodling. This means you have overcome many temptations to sell. You have been able to overcome countless FUDs caused by many events. How were you able to cope when there were various predictions of the death of Bitcoin? Keeping Bitcoin for 11 years is bravery to me because it takes uncommon faith and patience. It takes financial planning and prudence to live within your means to avoid selling your investment. It beats my imagination how people believed in a strange coin and kept holding it even when they had various opportunities to sell and make some profit. I just feel that people who are still keeping their coin visualized or saw what others didn't.

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[Zaguru12]

Some people decide to hold it until they meet the price they want. Some may lose their private keys. Or maybe some of them cannot find the private keys anymore. Imagine where satoshi is now. He also has a lot of Bitcoin that did not moved for a long time now.

Those Satoshi’s bitcoin doesn’t seems like something that he lost, he might have actually just created a new wallet and throw those bitcoins there and then throw the keys away just to maybe add value to the circulating ones as he as he did say himself what lost coins are for. Or probably he is dead and no one knows the whereabout of the keys. Those could be the cases but for him to have mistakenly lost them I don’t think someone (if he is human) like him is too knowledgeable for that

Someone has to prove that it's transactional, and we can buy things with this. Just imagine we are all buying Bitcoin, and no one is spending, and it has no use in reality. So, what is the point of gathering more and more Bitcoin and no plan to spend it? Some people see Lazslo as an Idiot because he sold 10000 Bitcoin for two large-size pizzas.

If we look at the Lazslo cases it is because many people are just seeing it now as him been wasteful because of how expensive bitcoin is now, I bet before the mining of bitcoin even ends some of the next generation might even finds us stupid too for how we spent ours too.


Another reason for why bitcoins on some addresses are still yet to be moved could be maybe some people actually deliberately Time locked it or mistakenly set time that is far too long.

"Why you create a post after two months and two weeks of your registration date?" obviously you have a reason, while I can only guessing about your reason.

He could have reasons, maybe wasn’t ready to embark on this forum journey yet, or was still looking into one or two in the forum. But his first post isn’t actually bad as we normally have from newbies

[_BlackStar]

"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even touched the coins in their addresses, considering the high price of Bitcoin?"

Someone has already told you some reasonable reasons in the second post after yours ^[1] - so it already represents the general opinion about your question. I agree with him although several other reasons are also worth knowing, especially because you are still curious as a beginner.

[1] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5474885.msg63195078#msg63195078

With a private key, Bitcoin will always exist. I ask questions with a learning mindset, and after understanding, I feel that Bitcoin is like digital gold. It's basically difficult to have it after not having it in the early stages, after all, the price is too high. Although I don't have one, I hope Bitcoin and forums are getting better and better. I hope I can have it in the future. Those who possess are truly lucky

Bitcoin will remain on the blockchain regardless of whether you still hold or store your private key or not. Losing your private key will make you lose access to your wallet and the consequence is that you will lose your bitcoin forever.

Then from that - you don't have to buy a lot of bitcoin if you don't have a big budget. Buy as much as you have because basically you can still buy bitcoin even if you only have $5 in your account. Start from a small budget and increase it periodically according to your budget capabilities rather than nothing at all. IMO - This is the best way to start.

[oktana]

While most of them do not have access to their wallet anymore because they don’t remember where they stored their private key/mnemonic phrase,  some of the others have already withdrawn and even possibly used it (to solve life problems). There are still that set of people who have proper access to their wallet but do not want to sell it yet (they probably haven’t had need for it or would just rather hodl than have all that huge money as fiat). Additionally, from time to time, these wallets wake up, I guess it’s safe to say that it’s the owner who finally has the access. I hope eventually all the investor of back then find their private key/mnemonic phrase because they deserve it.

[Odohu]

Apologies to be blunt, but I believe the answer falls something along the lines of:  "None of your business".

This might seem like the first answer that will come to mind; it is natural to imagine what will be the concern of the OP if the early participants sell or not but if you view it from another angle, the OP might have raised this thread to find out some of their motivations for holding that long so that others will learn and also follow same. If this be the case, a lot of new Bitcoin investors will appreciate the long term perspective of Bitcoin rather than seeing it as a quick profit venture.

[philipma1957]

look at this block of 50 coins

https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/blocks/btc/3

it is block 3 of all time

went to this address

1FvzCLoTPGANNjWoUo6jUGuAG3wg1w4YjR

worth over 1 million dollars and is untouched.

now 3,4,5,6,7,8 all untouched

but 9. lets look at this one.

https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/blocks/btc/9

went to this address

https://www.blockchain.com/explorer/addresses/BTC/12cbQLTFMXRnSzktFkuoG3eHoMeFtpTu3S

now this address has a block of 50 coins plus 145 other coins put into it.

total of 195 in and 177 sent with 18 hanging out.

So if this was and is one satoshi's addresses on this one alone has plenty of action and is old as fuck.

[traderethereum]

There is no need to be surprised by what happened because bitcoin holders from the start may still want to hold bitcoin until a certain time. We also don't know what the real reason is why they haven't sold their bitcoins.
Or it could be that many of them have forgotten that they still have large amounts of bitcoin so they haven't touched their bitcoin.
You are still lucky that you can still buy it at the current price. When the price of bitcoin reaches a very high price, you may complain and cry because you have missed this good opportunity now.
You can buy it at the current price using the DCA method because it is a good method for everyone who wants to invest in bitcoin.

[KiaKia]

So many reasons, death or loss of private key, you name it, why would anyone get rich with Bitcoin and never tough their bags for multiple years, it's either they lost access to the wallet or they are already too rich to worry about the money, some big bitcoin whales still operates their wallets and they have been holding for so long.

Like I used to say, it's easier for the rich to keep get richer every day because they have a lot of money to take risks, they have no reason to bow to any panic, their cups are all full of everything they wanted already, mind you not all old Bitcoin holders are rich, some already sold to solve life problems and difficulties.

I just learned from the whales, that long term holding gets you richer than making few profits and taking them out, it's a good play too and nothing is wrong with it, but long term holders are the real people that benefits the most out of Bitcoin.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even touched the coins in their addresses, considering the high price of Bitcoin?"

Just as the majority of people here have given death and lost of access to the wallet holding these coins to be the reason why those coins haven't been move for a long while, another concrete reason for me why I think there coins haven't been sold or touch for this long period of time, is maybe the owners of these coins have not got need for it yet, that is maybe they have a target amount they intend to hold Bitcoin before selling.  Just as in the case of "frank1" above who says he has been holding his coin since 2012, of which this method can also be applicable to anyone, you don't need to hold a whole full 1 Bitcoin, any fraction of it is likely okay, only if you could have the mindset to hold it for a very long time.

[GigaBit]

Many of the early Bitcoin holders have held Bitcoin and many have failed to hold it. No one could have predicted that Bitcoin would become so expensive. Many have lost their access. I have heard of cases of people who didn't appreciate Bitcoin but eventually lost their access when they realized its value. However, those who have started accepting Bitcoin since 2017 relatively have tried to hold Bitcoin. Since Bitcoin is own asset of each investor, he also sells according to convenience when its value increases. Many investors sell bitcoins at a small profit and many hold it for a long time thinking of getting more profit from it.

[Renampun]

"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even touched the coins in their addresses, considering the high price of Bitcoin?"

Thank you very much for your answers. Those who hold these addresses may all be believers, just like when Nakamoto was founded, life will end at any time. With a private key, Bitcoin will always exist. I ask questions with a learning mindset, and after understanding, I feel that Bitcoin is like digital gold. It's basically difficult to have it after not having it in the early stages, after all, the price is too high. Although I don't have one, I hope Bitcoin and forums are getting better and better. I hope I can have it in the future. Those who possess are truly lucky

There are several factors that make Bitcoin holders at the beginning not sell the Bitcoin they have until now, such as they already have a lot of money or they forgot the password and key phrase from the personal Bitcoin wallet they have. just look at how Michael Saylor and several people who are famous for their abundant wealth have not yet sold the bitcoins they own, they know that the price of bitcoin in the future will be higher than the current price, in fact bitcoin is really profited by people who don't sell bitcoin what they have, it keeps the price of bitcoin stuck at a certain level.

[Silberman]

"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even touched the coins in their addresses, considering the high price of Bitcoin?"

We can speculate about their reasons for not doing so, but their reasons do not really concerns us and are theirs alone, however if you want to speculate why this happens we could imagine many reasons about why this is the case, like their coins being lost or not remembering they have those coins at all, after all would you remember where you placed a dollar more than a decade ago? Also it is possible their holdings are so valuable they have in fact sold a fraction of them while the rest appear to not move, but the owners of those coins are just waiting for the right moment to sell some of it again.

[philipma1957]

but the point is of the first 100,000 blocks with 5 million coins in them over 500,000 coins have moved.

So most of the guys alive  in years 1 and 2 of mining moved what they needed to move.

One day maybe in 2059 old unmoved addresses will be forfeiting the coins unless they move them.

Much Like a bank declares bank accounts to be abandoned.

I wonder if the USA or a few big ass countries will start to do that. Force the stale addresses to show they are not lost or abandoned.

I wish I was only 30 and not 66 as I likely won't live till 2059 to see what they do.

[coolcoinz]

Apologies to be blunt, but I believe the answer falls something along the lines of:  "None of your business".

When it's your money, you can wonder about what to do with it.  If it's not yours, then what the owner is or isn't doing with it is of no concern to you.

+1

I'm not an OG by any means, but I was up over x60k on my investment in the 2021 bull market and barely sold anything, so I can understand why someone who was up even more decided not to do it.
I know OP might be more interested about people who held bitcoin when it was worth $1, but I know that if we went to $100k somewhere next year, I'd still hold bitcoin.

OP probably comes from a family where owning $100k is a big thing, but not all of us do. Many people live in houses worth 10 or more bitcoin (at current price) and drive cars worth a few coins as well.
The safety that owning an independent asset like bitcoin gives you might be more important to them than some more fiat money in the bank.  

[kentrolla]

Those are the real long term hodlers who have a clear plan in place about when they would like to cash out because it's not easy to hodl Bitcoin for such a long term as a human being we would be tempted to sell of when it hits peak and starts to drop. Either they had even more Bitcoin and they would have segregated certain amount of Bitcoin which they would be hodling for long term and used some for current expenditure or any other needs.

Some would have purchased at really cheap price and would be hodling a portion of it so there are many reasons but most accurate would be that they are more smarter than is and more successful than us.

[coupable]

"Why haven't the earliest participants sold their Bitcoin, and some haven't even touched the coins in their addresses, considering the high price of Bitcoin?"

There cannot be anyone who is able to provide logical reasons for this and all we can do is speculate on what the reasons might be. Given the large number of Bitcoins that remain stagnant in old addresses, the two most logical reasons are:
- The owner of the address no longer has access to the private keys for that address, and this is a very likely hypothesis. That is, the person lost those keys or he died before using that Bitcoin and no one was able to do so after him.
- Unpredictable personal reasons. The most important of which is that the person has enough savings and does not need to exchange that old Bitcoin.

[passwordnow]

Not all of them are still holding it because they're holding. Like what has been said that it's likely that most of those are lost forever and the owners of it have lost access on it because it seems unimportant on the early days until they realize that the value has moved up tremendously that they are no longer confident of just allowing it to be forgotten. Remember the guy that has lost his hard drive on a landfill and trying to recover it and as well as the guy that has forgotten his password and has a few attempts left? See. It's because that doesn't look important before but this day, it seems that there's a need for them to see the whole point of holding it.

And out of good luck and faith, the value of Bitcoin have eventually went up that they can no longer to resist it. If I am one of the early adopters like I've bought it on $50, I'd definitely sell them for $100 - $200. And that's the situation of the most of them on the early days and those that has diamond hands are the real OGs that have managed to sold some and hold most still to this date.

[franky1]

hoarding since 2012

What? Since 2012?  I am glad to hear from an old-timer who still has access to his Bitcoin hodling. This means you have overcome many temptations to sell. You have been able to overcome countless FUDs caused by many events. How were you able to cope when there were various predictions of the death of Bitcoin?

most "death" talk is just price mania.. not fundamental technology failure.. if im not wanting to sell i have no need to care about the price whims of that period. price becomes meaningless to me.. its like people dont worry about tidal waves or tsunami's if they are not going near a beach

Keeping Bitcoin for 11 years is bravery to me because it takes uncommon faith and patience. It takes financial planning and prudence to live within your means to avoid selling your investment.

i do sell small % to cover my yearly costs. and although i do plan and am frugal. i do travel and enjoy life so its not like im torturing myself to "live within my means"

It beats my imagination how people believed in a strange coin and kept holding it even when they had various opportunities to sell and make some profit. I just feel that people who are still keeping their coin visualized or saw what others didn't.

early years for me 2012-2014 i was a day trader.. not looking to exit for fiat profit, but instead to accumulate coin. i did not see the price as a $ figure
i seen it as a % ↑ ↓ of last trade i measured it in +/- sats.
i didnt care what the price was. it was just a mindset of: 'is order B a better accumulation than order A exposure'

if the price was $6-$12 in 2012  or was $250-$500 another year i just seen it as 2x on both occasions. the monetary amount didnt bother me. it was about % and multipliers and sat amounts

then i took a back seat away from day trading thus didnt need to look at price drama on a daily rate

i do however notice the cycle events of ATH-> corrections...
so i do put some to sell on the high. and buy more on the correction
and when i do have spare fiat i do accumulate more on the correction.

[Woodie]

Simple , they have nothing to lose as they have broken even and gotten some profits from their investments!!!

Why would someone that bought Bitcoin @$10 or $500 really be pressured into selling when the investment has over a 100% ROI

Besides I think the earliest hodlers understood bitcoin better and their beliefs in BTC is out of this world! ** mic drop**

[sheenshane]

Op might wonder why there are too many untouched Bitcoins on different old addresses, it's given an earlier post answer, it could be the real owner can't access it or is stuck there because they are dead.  I don't think there's a real long-term holder now, it might be a few of them, but the majority will sell Bitcoin in a short period of time when they see a small profit.

hoarding since 2012

What? Since 2012? 

Sounds great, but I wanted to know how many times you transferred your Bitcoin to a different address.