The Psychology of Holding Bitcoin Through Bear Markets

[Xackie]

Many people usually say they have a strong belief in Bitcoin especially when the market is in a bullish momentum. That belief stops when the bear market arrives, that is where their great test begins. Because when price falls, their portfolio that was once greenie and healthy before has turned red and fear begins to replace optimism. So at that stage investing itself becomes less about Bitcoin and more about their psychology.
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‎ One of the reasons why people panic in the bear market is because of high expectations. Whereby the only thing that goes through their mind is that Bitcoin will always keep rising without keeping in mind that it can also dip. So when that dip finally happens, they begin to doubt their decisions. Instead of them keeping their head straight and focus on  why they invested in Bitcoin in the first place, they become trapped and consumed by short term moves.
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‎ What makes it worse is when they haven't learnt or tried to gain more understanding about Bitcoin when they were investing. So they can be easily swayed with what they see,  when social media, friends and news are all predicting  that the market will continue to dip. Investors without a good understanding of Bitcoin feel will pressurized at this stage. Ironically, this often leads to selling after the market has already fallen substantially, only for them to see the market recovering after that.
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‎ Investors who took their time in understanding Bitcoin while they were investing are often less shaken by volatility. Because they've understood that the bear market has been part of the Bitcoin cycles, which is normal. This will help investors make decisions based on research instead of emotions. another important factor is financial planning or preparation. Someone who buys Bitcoin with funds meant for daily needs will be the one to panic than someone who invested with their spare cash after sorting out their necessary bills and expenses. Decisions and emotional discipline becomes easy to control when your daily life isn't dependent on short-term market performance.
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‎Holding through the bear market is more about our mindset not by predicting every moved the market does. due to it volatility, they market will always fluctuates, but investors who have the ability to remain patient, think rationally, and stick to a wellthoughtout plan often makes the biggest difference over the long term. What your own take on this? what do you guys feel people need to do to survive and hold during this bearish condition?

[EarnOnVictor]

I don't believe in the everlasting holding of Bitcoin, and I've never hid it on this forum. Bitcoin is now profitable only when you are smart about it. Gone are the days when it was still young and inexpensive; things have changed, and we need to change with it, unless we want to be wasting our time or wait for long and still gain a little.

My warning against Buy Buy Buy even when it was still above $120,000 has come true again, and I am sure those who yielded to the advice of maximalists, rather than the prevailing reality would be regretting it now. Bitcoin is a sweet investment, but being smart with it is the only way you would not be hurt, but be making consistent gain.

[348Judah]

Holding sometimes can be challenging because we may see it as a loss and this may attract us to give up holding further, especially when the market keeps falling, but when we have a good understanding of how the network runs and what should we expected of the market price performance, we are going to develop more thicker skin in Bitcoin investments and any other crypto.

[STT]

Gone are the days when it was still young and inexpensive

Nobody was saying wow its so cheap when Bitcoin was hundreds of dollars.  Risk and fear were there motivating sellers, some sold out and never came back.   Some were desperate to sell because it was going to half maybe, the prices change and the amount of zero's but the words on every cycle of bear or bull is amazingly similar.

Theres a speculative cycle and basis to ownership, trading and overall involvement but far more important is actual usage, real new users who gain utility from BTC in their lives.   People continents away from Washington DC are carrying round dollars as essential to their savings or working capital.  The point is in an increasingly connected and online world does BTC have a usage in enabling members of disconnected or remote countries to enter a global economy.

   If Bitcoin is growing in users, it should be worth being involved; layered on top of that is speculative hype and fears.   Generally, you should avoid buying into either the excessive hype or fear that seems to occur almost every year but certainly every cycle.

[Marykeller]

Holding sometimes can be challenging because we may see it as a loss and this may attract us to give up holding further, especially when the market keeps falling, but when we have a good understanding of how the network runs and what should we expected of the market price performance, we are going to develop more thicker skin in Bitcoin investments and any other crypto.

Any other crypto coins, which ones are we to mention, side by side with Bitcoin that we are sure are going to give us profits, if we hodl them for long.

From what I can tell, Bitcoin has been the trusted crypto investment someone can make, as they can be sure they can recover the losses they had in the bearish market, and make many gains in the bull run as Bitcoin is going to give a new ATH

[blomen]

i don’t think we’re back in the days when you could say “buy bitcoin anywhere,” but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t hold onto the bitcoin you already have during these bear markets. if you already have bitcoin during a bear market, and it’s already clear that the bear market has begun, i wouldn’t recommend selling your bitcoin and constantly trying to catch the bottom.

for example, let’s say you have a bitcoin that you managed to sell for $75,000 in the middle of a bear market. an average person would set a price for buying it back, such as, “if it drops below $60,000, i’ll buy it again.” then the price will likely drop below $60,000, but that same person probably will say, “it’s still falling,” and ignore it. nobody even knows when the bear market has ended exactly. who knows how many people have experienced this before, and we know the number is significant.

if you hold bitcoin and we’re in a bear market, be realistic and hold on to your bitcoin. it’s not your fault that you didn’t sell at the top, but it will be your fault if you don’t have bitcoin when the next bull comes.

[hyudien]

what do you guys feel people need to do to survive and hold during this bearish condition?

It's simple, when you want to invest in bitcoin which is known to be very volatile, and so that you can survive the bear market, especially in the long term so as not to sell it at a loss, it is enough to invest the money you can afford, the money that is really left after cutting mandatory expenses, cutting for your emergency fund and reserve fund, so that your psychological condition will not be disturbed.

[GeorgeJohn]

Holding sometimes can be challenging because we may see it as a loss and this may attract us to give up holding further, especially when the market keeps falling,

You have to know that once you have decided to hold, you already have a target, most of the holders have a target, even though the price started falling, dont panic, most holders that doesn't have a target are the one that get afraid and panicked when the price falls...

but when we have a good understanding of how the network runs and what should we expected of the market price performance, we are going to develop more thicker skin in Bitcoin investments and any other crypto.

When you understand the market movement of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies, you will not be worried whenever the price fails to meet the investor's expectations..It's obvious that the price of Bitcoin is stable, so if investing for it, you have to know that endurance or patient is the key to make profit from it...it's only those who fails understand that cryptocurrencies generally fluctuate in price that will be bothered of the falling price after they've invested...

[EL MOHA]

It's simple, when you want to invest in bitcoin which is known to be very volatile, and so that you can survive the bear market, especially in the long term so as not to sell it at a loss, it is enough to invest the money you can afford, the money that is really left after cutting mandatory expenses, cutting for your emergency fund and reserve fund, so that your psychological condition will not be disturbed.

I actually agree with you that the best form for proper psychology is simply to invest what one can afford. This could be either what they can afford to lose or what they can afford to hodl for a very long time it’s all in same place, because after a long period of holding bitcoin has proven to be very profitable when held for long.
But one of the reasons why we have problems of people investing more than this, is when they are actually been influenced by some certain people who portray bitcoin as a get rich quick scheme and makes people to invest more than they can afford to invest.

[cryptomaniac_xxx]

Holding sometimes can be challenging because we may see it as a loss and this may attract us to give up holding further, especially when the market keeps falling, but when we have a good understanding of how the network runs and what should we expected of the market price performance, we are going to develop more thicker skin in Bitcoin investments and any other crypto.

And there could be this phenomena of what we call mental fatigue. Sometimes we get tired of buying Bitcoin. It's not that we don't have the money, but it could be the stress tht it could brought to us because it's going to be too long for some.

So there could be individuals who might stop buying from time to time. Not going to be perfect for everyone, or there might be cases that there is something that came into our lives that we need to sell.

[davis196]

Investors who took their time in understanding Bitcoin while they were investing are often less shaken by volatility. Because they've understood that the bear market has been part of the Bitcoin cycles, which is normal. This will help investors make decisions based on research instead of emotions. another important factor is financial planning or preparation.

You don't have to understand Bitcoin in order to understand the volatility on the crypto markets. Bitcoin works fine as a cryptocurrency.
The price volatility is caused by limited supply and unstable demand. Once the demand starts growing, the price will start increasing as well.
If someone is stressed out about price volatility or bear markets, all they can do is just ask an AI Chatbot. I asked Google Gemini about the Bitcoin price in 2030 and the conservative estimates show that the lowest potential price is expected to be somewhere around 75-77K USD, while the optimistic estimates are showing a price between 150K and one million USD. AI is supposed to be always correct, am I right?
Jokes aside, there's nothing to worry about, a bull market will come after a year or two.

[Awaklara]

what do you guys feel people need to do to survive and hold during this bearish condition?

Simply put, everyone wants to buy at a low price. So we have to develop a mindset to see a bearish market as an opportunity to buy, not to panic because the value of our portfolio drops. For those who are experienced, it's easy because they already have confidence. But honestly, for beginners, it can really cause a bit of panic. I was the same when I started investing in Bitcoin.

[I_Anime]

I personally I’m not scared of the bear market , when come to the crypto market there’s always opportunities despite the market situation. Yeah during the bear market prices tend to go down drastically, causing a lot of panic in the market which will lead to more selling in the market .

But to me all i see is opportunity to buy at cheaper rate because the more the price drop , the cheaper it gets . So those that brought when the prices was around $100k+ are different for those that are being aggressive now , best thing to do is to always try to see the light in any situation .

[bangjoe]

what do you guys feel people need to do to survive and hold during this bearish condition?

Simply put, everyone wants to buy at a low price. So we have to develop a mindset to see a bearish market as an opportunity to buy, not to panic because the value of our portfolio drops. For those who are experienced, it's easy because they already have confidence. But honestly, for beginners, it can really cause a bit of panic. I was the same when I started investing in Bitcoin.

Yes, our mindset must be changed from most people who only talk about profit, fluctuations in the value of bitcoin that we have is a natural thing in bitcoin and it should be more eager to buy when the decline, from the many cases of beginners fear is born because they do not have long-term thinking because they are not accustomed to, he didn't lose his bitcoins, he just lost their value, which is basically guaranteed to come back and make a profit if they understand that holding bitcoins is like holding diamonds.

I may be the same as you in the initial phase, but honestly if I read more references and open my mind maybe I didn't make the mistake of selling the bitcoin I once owned, the beginner can now be much stronger if he really learns the mistakes of previous bitcoin holders.

[SatoPrincess]

You have to know that once you have decided to hold, you already have a target, most of the holders have a target, even though the price started falling, dont panic, most holders that doesn't have a target are the one that get afraid and panicked when the price falls...

That’s not entirely true. You can have a target of $100k and still get influenced by market noise. I’d argue that most of the “weak hands” as we call them had hopes of making a particular amount of profit from their bitcoin investment before they sold their coins at loss due to FOMO and FUD.

 

When you understand the market movement of bitcoin or any other cryptocurrencies, you will not be worried whenever the price fails to meet the investor's expectations..It's obvious that the price of Bitcoin is stable, so if investing for it, you have to know that endurance or patient is the key to make profit from it...it's only those who fails understand that cryptocurrencies generally fluctuate in price that will be bothered of the falling price after they've invested...

I assume it’s a typo and you meant unstable. IMO the problem is not that they do not understand market movement, they invested for the wrong reasons and may have invested money they couldn’t actually risk. with.

[cxtreenal]

‎Holding through the bear market is more about our mindset not by predicting every moved the market does. due to it volatility, they market will always fluctuates, but investors who have the ability to remain patient, think rationally, and stick to a wellthoughtout plan often makes the biggest difference over the long term. What your own take on this? what do you guys feel people need to do to survive and hold during this bearish condition?

Continue to buy Bitcoin in bear markets. If you are new to Bitcoin, buy small amounts without using leverage. Bear markets can create great opportunities for you as well as panic. The panicked are those who want to get high profits from Bitcoin in a short period of time because they are traders.

Use the DCA method to buy Bitcoin and keep accumulation regularly through discretionary income. If you have excess available funds, you can use it to buy Bitcoin through lump sum because the bear market is came for a short period of time and the bull run may start soon.

[Odusko]

When we talk about a bear market in the cryptocurrency market, and how it affects investors and what their reactions are, we must first of all point to one very important fact which is experience because an investor's experience of the Bitcoin market and its movement plays a very vital role in how such a person reacts to a bear market.  For a person with long-term experience, he should already know that a bear market provides an opportunity to buy at a low price and all that is needed is to wait for the price to recover.

[Ndabagi01]

Holding sometimes can be challenging because we may see it as a loss and this may attract us to give up holding further, especially when the market keeps falling, but when we have a good understanding of how the network runs and what should we expected of the market price performance, we are going to develop more thicker skin in Bitcoin investments and any other crypto.

It is very simple to hold through the bear market but the kind of approach we use to enter the market tells us more about how we need to stay ahead in terms of market crisis like the bear markets. Holding through the bears can be very challenging for all, but it becomes something of ease if we are prepared on it and look to accept the result of the market as a normal consequence which cannot be changed. With such mindset, we can further get to realise that bear market is just a passing time in the market that is repetitive but in the long run, the bulls will eventually take over and reach bigger heights in the market.

[LFC_Bitcoin]

It’s not my first rodeo, I’ve been balls deep in Bitcoin since 2014. I think you earn your stripes in your furst bear market when you’re down over 50% at least and you’ve lost so much (unrealised) profits. Those are the times that people ever man up and hold or become a beta male coward and dump at a loss.

It’s not nice but holding through your first bear market and doubling down by continuing to buy is what makes a real bitcoiner. Most people can’t handle big paper losses and sell. Those that do hold are built differently, we are the guys who do very well.

[aoluain]

Anyone around here for a few years have seen newbies buying Bitcoin close to the ATH
and then panicking aand suffering from fear when the market enters the following Bear
season. We have seen the sell off at a loss and the fear of "losing it all".

It does comes down to basic understanding of the bitcoin 4 year cycle and the market
Bear and bull seasons. I can speak for myself in this when I say very few people consider
this before or when getting into Bitcoin.