Risk of holding bitcoin forever

[Hewlet]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

forgetting your password while you are still invested is not a function of how long you have invested and wether or not you were around at the time bitcoin started or became a popular asset. it is rather about knowing the relevance of keeping to the right security details and ensuring that you are keeping at it to the latter. you can not and should not think of holding bitcoin forever because such a plan is completely what worthless. your investment should be time bound and there should be a clear plan as to when you are opting out and what becomes of you as well as the plans you have made that will sustain you when you are opting out.

[Lida93]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

This typical wrong. Do you want to say that those that safely kept their wallet seeds all those early years of bitcoin till now don't they have access to their bitcoin with full custody to it? It's a different matter when you got careless and lost your wallet seeds and want to blame on the idea that it's because you attempted to hold for long. You were just careless not to know how to safely keep your seeds.

Also, no investment is held forever and ever. There must come a time when you would liquidate your investment with the profit towards other areas of necessitation as life goes on, and this doesn't exempt bitcoin investors.

[qwertyup23]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Well.... what is the true purpose of an investment? Aren't we investing both for profit and to protect our interests given that BTC has a huge store-for-value?

Personally, I do not see the need to HODL forever given that it eliminates the purpose on why we invest in the first place. If you just HODL without even converting it for currency, then nothing is really "invested" given its meaning.

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

When they invested in Bitcoin at the beginning, Bitcoin had not become a potential asset or Bitcoin did not have a good future. As a result, many people may have ignored or neglected Bitcoin since Bitcoin was not a valuable asset at that time. But is the current situation like that time? Now Bitcoin is fighting for superiority in terms of valuable assets, when someone holds Bitcoin at present, that person has already made a Bitcoin recovery situation.

I am somehow guilty of this given that I failed to realize the true value of HODLing until I hindsight. Well the truth is, treat your first year of investing as the journey. Expect BTC to skyrocket on its price in the near future!

[SquirrelJulietGarden]

Well.... what is the true purpose of an investment? Aren't we investing both for profit and to protect our interests given that BTC has a huge store-for-value?

Personally, I do not see the need to HODL forever given that it eliminates the purpose on why we invest in the first place. If you just HODL without even converting it for currency, then nothing is really "invested" given its meaning.

Investment is made for profit and depends on financial status as well as financial preparation before and during investment, investors will have different needs of taking profit after several months, in a market cycle or just hold it for a longer time with very little pressure of taking profit for money. However, it's the same purposes that investors invest money in Bitcoin for profit, it's just when they will take profit.

HODL is a term used for marketing and psychology manipulation, that sounds cool but that does not necessary to be used for prohibiting anyone to take profit.

[Nwada001]

Their fate can’t be similar to someone who is investing now. As you said they forgot about it and even forgot their seed phrase which might be a case of carelessness, although some certain circumstances might have taken place. Because seed phrase are meant to be kept safe and it is advisable to safe both online and offline since it is very important to you and you as well have a goal to achieve which is why it is very important to keep safe.

I will never advise anyone to save their seed phrase online; that's a very risky thing to do. Anything that you save online is a great risk; if your cloud storage or wherever it's being saved gets compromised, that will be the end of your holding, as the person who gains access to the wallet will get things emptied. The best thing is to make all your backups offline and make sure you protect them. Look for secured locations and keep each backup.

[Faisal2202]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Yes, they are in a better position, and their fate will be much better than the previous one. Because a lot of people are talking about crypto, a lot of articles have been published, and AI is also helping us to learn about crypto. The only reason people lose in the start is that they started crypto, they did learned about a few things, but how to secure their bitcoins for the long term after buying was not something they thought worth exploring.

But nowadays everyone when mentioning how to buy, they also add how to securely hold our bitcoins for the long term without losing them and also without selling them.

It is important for us to learn first, if we want to survive, otherwise we will repeat what others have repeated.

[Stormisover]

There are also early people that were able to access their bitcoin and still holding. It's a norm that some investors will be careless with keeping their bitcoin safe and lose access to their funds in future because they take little things for granted. Anyone that wants to hodli for long term should write down his seed phrase on a piece of paper and make three duplicates. Store them in three different locations far from each other.

Anyone who doesn't plan for the security and safety of their Bitcoin doesn't really believe in Bitcoin and while they are can be so careless about it, because just as they say that whatever you treasure so much that's where your heart and your mind will be always, Bitcoin is a treasure and having it should give anyone who values it a different kind of sense of reasoning for safety, I could also understand that most people who misplaced their seed phrase never in their wildest imagination believe that Bitcoin will get to this point and while they took things for granted.

[DubemIfedigbo001]

~snip~
Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

Those who buy Bitcoin and never do anything with it are in the worst position.

It is still very much possible it was bought to serve as an inheritance for the family, just like is applicable with family businesses and other kinds of investments. The person that bought it may never have anything to do with it but his successors would.

It all boils down to the main reason it was purchased in the first place of which different people have peculiar reasons for coming into bitcoin. The term "holding forever" isn't very feasible to me, unless the investors destroyed the keys/phrases backups while they were alive and that is a very stupid things to do IMHO.

[Alonso_]

I don’t feel there is any much risk involved in holding bitcoin, but to me I feel there is absolutely no risk involved in holding bitcoin, when investing in bitcoin the most important thing is having a discretionary income, so you can keep buying bitcoin on a regular and consistent basis, I think where you can possibly have a problem is when you’re not buying bitcoin consistently on a regular basis, but instead you prefer waiting for the dip and the price of bitcoin keeps going down down, that would obviously be a very huge problem and challenge to handle, because when bitcoin is coming down and you’re not buying, then it would become a problem, so I think if you keep buying bitcoin consistently on a regular basis you will not have any problem whatsoever associated with risk of holding bitcoin forever for future purposes.

[Easteregg69]

Only risk is you don't look at the world. I report next time anno 4048. Year of the Lord. Anno.

Jesus is not planned to come back for a long time. Thinking about your President.

So i report earlier than that. Then what? Not stopping you from having a good time. You be like you can sell your btc any day!

You don't have any idea how spiked you be when you get back. People call about some shit war just because you own 1 bicoin. While you stick with fruits and what you got to keep it safe. As a citizen.

Brings it to denomination. What you need is "drift". To go as long as planned. It's design turf. Yours. You remember the original idea before anyone else. Proof of work. Defined.

You know why i work for free now. To get sober before the new day arrives. Cops loves it. No more being bastards. Dear cop. I be incognito so you look the other way. Bridging to what is real.

You know what the eco system talks is about. Punch line for the Lord. Eco systems? Since every thing is looking ok from here. No hostile weather lately.

You save the ones that come with bitcoin inflicted damages. Amen. I get some sleep. First bringing butter to the table.

[savetheFORUM]

Why would it be bad for you to leave your kids some crypto? I mean if you keep buying as much as you can, and put it aside, without hurting your finances of course , and do that until you die, then leave those to your kids, that would not be a bad idea. But, I am against the idea of old people having millions of dollars when their kids fail to own a home.

If you have some bitcoin when you are old, enough to carry yourself and also provide for your kids, then giving it to your kids when they are young is smarter. When you die, they could be 40 years old, by that time it's too late, it's smarter if you just share it when you can. So if you do get rich, you can sell and help them, as long as you protect your old age as well of course, do not spend ALL your money.

[Agbe]

Snip

Nobody would be investing bitcoin forever and there is time for everything. There is short term goal and long term goal, in the short term goal, it might be within one cycle of investment which should be 4-5 years period. While the long term goal will be more that one cycle. And it might be 10 to 15 years or more. All depends on your capability to hodle. Recently I read a news that a Bitcoin Maximalist, popular known as Michael Saylor sold off his coins and USA also sold off their Bitcoin reserve and they is why Bitcoin is coming down. But I have not confirmed the full details of the news. What am I saying. Everyone has their time to sell. The main thing here is, you buy and sell at the appropriate time.

[GiftedMAN]

There are several stories online about how some early investors lost their asset cause they couldn't remember their phrase but that shouldn't discourage anyone from holding for long cause that's the best way to get better profits from investing in Bitcoin. I believe that lots of holders would've learnt from those stories and ensure that such doesn't happen to them in the future, hope you know that learning to secure and protect your coin is involved in understanding the basics?

[passwordnow]

Fate of holders forgotten their keys and passwords isn't the same as those investors that have decided to hold for long term. Long term doesn't mean that they're going to hold forever. We know that there will be equal time of their patience when they're going to sell for profits. The risk that the long term holders have is if all of a sudden, the untimely passing away has come. That's why we have to teach our partners, families and children about retrieving wallets and crypto in general.

[Promocodeudo]

There are several stories online about how some early investors lost their asset cause they couldn't remember their phrase but that shouldn't discourage anyone from holding for long cause that's the best way to get better profits from investing in Bitcoin. I believe that lots of holders would've learnt from those stories and ensure that such doesn't happen to them in the future, hope you know that learning to secure and protect your coin is involved in understanding the basics?

And who said most of those stories are even true, we have anti Bitcoiners that can come up with different stories to discourage people from hodling for a long term, some of these persons that are against Bitcoin has a way of making their stories to look real for people to believe, I'm not saying that there are no true stories like that but with how some persons talk about Bitcoin, you'll understand that there are many haters out there, even though things like this has happened, there are lesson to learn from them, the more people say things of this nature, serious minds learn more on how not to avoid such mistakes, I do not fancy anything that discourages hodling for a long-term I see them as a calculated attempt to discourage hodlers.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Recently I read a news that a Bitcoin Maximalist, popular known as Michael Saylor sold off his coins and USA also sold off their Bitcoin reserve and they is why Bitcoin is coming down. But I have not confirmed the full details of the news. What am I saying. Everyone has their time to sell. The main thing here is, you buy and sell at the appropriate time.

Where did you get those rumors from, because I hardly see any news about them? But I guess it is all fake news

Michael Saylor even just announced that Strategy has added nearly 18,000 BTC, worth $1,28 billion. As of now, they hold a total of 738,000 BTC, with an average purchase price of $75k USD per bitcoin. If they sell at the current price, they will incur a significant loss. Meanwhile, Trump had previously issued an executive order prohibiting the government from selling the bitcoin it held. That mean any decision to sell must be approved by him.



https://x.com/saylor/status/2030977218726244562

[dunfida]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

For those OG's when Bitcoin has just started then no one really knows the future and that something that those people forget their coins or wallet passwords etc. They are just that starting to look for it at the time that Bitcoin do reach out new all time highs. For those who had been mindful on keeping out their keys/backups for long time without any selling then that extreme patience really paid off considering on whats the value of Bitcoin today. There's always risks about holding up your Bitcoin on which this isnt only talking about losing up your passwords or keys but rather also the risks when it comes into its security on which if you are that careless then those coins might be hacked or be gone. Therefore, you would be needing up to look for different angle for you to be be able to find yourself having that kind of assurance that at least you are confident that you are that keeping up your coins safe specially on long term holds.

Holding up Bitcoins forever is quite absurd and its much better that you should be having that selling point on a specific price or simply having goals because its better to cherish out those profits while you still can rather than on ending up dying without using it out.

[bitLeap]

Michael Saylor even just announced that Strategy has added nearly 18,000 BTC, worth $1,28 billion. As of now, they hold a total of 738,000 BTC, with an average purchase price of $75k USD per bitcoin. If they sell at the current price, they will incur a significant loss. Meanwhile, Trump had previously issued an executive order prohibiting the government from selling the bitcoin it held. That mean any decision to sell must be approved by him.



https://x.com/saylor/status/2030977218726244562

Both Michael Saylor and the US government have procedures in place for selling large amounts of Bitcoin. Such large scale transactions are typically publicly trackable through onchain activity, so any indication of a sale is often quickly identified and responded to by the market.
As far as I know, Saylor himself has not sold any of his Bitcoin holdings. Conversely, the US government has sold Bitcoin several times, generally from confiscated assets, but the resulting market impact has usually been temporary.
More broadly, sales by large holders can actually weaken their own position in the long term. When a portion of their holdings is released to the market, Bitcoin distribution becomes wider and the remaining supply in their hands shrinks. This ultimately requires these large holders to defend their holdings more firmly if they want to maintain their influence in the long term.

[Patikno]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

There is no connection between storing Bitcoin long-term and losing or forgetting the seedphrase. It is all about mistakes or negligence in maintaining a personal wallet.

Therefore, we must always safeguard our Bitcoin, which means considering all possible risks. I often recommend storing crypto wallets (including Bitcoin) offline and avoiding storing them on devices connected to the internet. Personally, I maintain a crypto wallet that I try to keep off the internet, store it on multiple devices (both hard drives and SSDs), and keep it encrypted (for added security), and I have written down all the clues on paper ( in case I forget, or am gone). So far, these few things have kept my wallet safe, and fortunately, I have never had a bad experience. In essence, if we keep our wallet seedphrase well, then there will be no problem storing it forever.

[finaleshot2016]

Those who invested in bitcoin at the time when it was launched and forgot about it, there are many among these who forgot their password. That is like losing all your money just because you held very long. Those who are investing now and plan to hold forever, are they in better position or their fate will be similar ?

There is no connection between storing Bitcoin long-term and losing or forgetting the seedphrase. It is all about mistakes or negligence in maintaining a personal wallet.

True, people always trying to find the negative thing that is fixable in just few steps. It's 2026, there are bunch of ways to avoid mistakes such as losing the seed phrase and I don't think it's a major problem today. There are ways like writing it on paper, locking the seed phrase or memorizing it like it's ABC. Forgetting password is just a 5% problem today, if you have a bunch of BTC which is very valuable today, why would you forget the seed? It doesn't make sense. One of the major problems today IMO, is the hacking of wallets, some are unstoppable.