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12 years ago, a whiskey-fuelled rant coined the iconic term HODL with a drunken mispelling — Bitcoin investment strategy would have turned $523 into over $87,000, a 16,666% gain
On December 18, 2013, a cryptocurrency investor felt compelled to pen a message rallying his fellow shellshocked troops on the Bitcointalk forums, encouraging them to hold their Bitcoin investments regardless of market fluctations. From GameKyuubi’s panicked, whisky-fuelled, typo-ridden missive, he accidentally coined the term ‘HODL’ and it entered the lexicon, sparking a million crypto and investment memes.
On this day in 2013, the ‘HODL’ meme was born. An internet forum user posted while intoxicated during a Bitcoin price drop and misspelled “hold” in a message about never selling. The meme spread and came to mean buying bitcoin for the long term no matter what. pic.twitter.com/TbG0HnNTxZDecember 18, 2025
Amusingly, the originator of the HODL meme knew their communications were somewhat garbled. “I type d that tyitle twice because I know it was wrong the first time [sic],” wrote GameKyuubi. “Still wrong. w/e/ GF’s out at a lesbian bar. BTC crashing.”
GameKyuubi would readily admit their trading strategy flaws. “I know I am a bad trader,” and confirm they didn’t have the smarts to buy and sell to make money while riding the waves. However, their answer to the traders with 20:20 vision crowing that they “should have sold” was resolute. GameKyuubi characterized themselves as simply one of those people who have strong hands and hold for the most rewarding payoff, weathering all the storms that might beat other investors down. Or, as per the title of their most famous post, “I AM HODLING.”
While its origin is almost certainly from desperately drunk messaging. HODL has been retroactively reinterpreted as being an acronym for Hold On for Dear Life. Thus, it has become a clearly distinct strategy from the simple verb hold. HODL is a long-term conviction, not an action.
Now, HODLing doesn’t just apply to cryptocurrency; it is relevant to all kinds of investments where people are happy to hold on, despite undulating fortunes, convinced of an eventual payoff. It is indeed a strategy that can work, as we have seen with Bitcoin. However, traditional investors might coolly stop losses at, say, 10% down to preserve capital for fresh plans, making trading far more sustainable than a faith-driven all-or-nothing strategy.
GameKyuubi’s 16,666% HODL payoff?
It is interesting to measure GameKyuubi’s potential payoff for their HODLing. Let’s say that they held 1BTC on that fateful drunken evening. At the time, it was valued at approximately $523. That sounds fantastic, given the context that it started the year at just $13 or so. But $523 is a sizable drop from Bitcoin’s $1,132 valuation of November 29, which was an all-time-high. Thankfully, for the frazzled HODL crowd, BTC recovered to $732 by the end of 2013.
Let’s also say GameKyuubi held that 1BTC from 12 years ago to today. Theoretically, they would be glowing with satisfaction that their investment had soared by 16,666% in the meantime. But they should have sold at $126,080 on October 6, this year. Just saying…
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Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.
