"Long-term" investment has a new meaning because of cryptocurrency.

In our hyper-active, attention-deficit culture, cryptocurrency has an appeal that simply can not be met by more traditional investment.

In the world of stock investing, movements of 10% would be dramatic over the course of months, let alone days, or even hours. The stock market had a spectacular year - the best growth since 2013, and grew about 20% over the course of a year.

A 20% growth rate in a year in any given cryptocurrency would be horrendously disappointing. This is a world in which Ethereum grew more than 10 000 percent in a year. Ten thousand percent. Bitcoin grew by more than 2 000 percent in value. In fact, there was one currency - Verge - that - over the year 2017, grew in value, at one point, by more than one MILLION percent. Crazy.

So it's no wonder we are getting a bit spoiled. The flip side of this ridiculous growth is that we can also experience drops of 50, 60,... heck, 90%. This has happened in Bitcoin's past, more than once.

But let's keep this in perspective. We are looking at a market that grew around 4 000% last year. Yes, the whole market did drop from around $800 billion to the current $400 billion, but it was $18 billion one year ago. Let that sink in. $18 billion for the entire market cap of all cryptocurrencies. One year ago.

Now, we are forced to hodl our investments for weeks or even, potentially, months at a time before enjoying a return on our investments. Most new crypto-investors are simply not used to this. What used to take a day or maybe a week to see a huge gain, now might take (gasp) a month or two.

This will be good for the market. It will filter out short-term weak hands that can not handle the stress of market drops and fluctuations. The market will be stronger and healthier in the long run.

In the meantime, keep on hodling!

image source:

http://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/