Ever since the dawn of Bitcoin and Ethereum, many attractive crypto assets have begun to rule the market such as Cardano (ADA), Terra (LUNA), and Decentraland (MANA). However, there was one question that always bugged my mind. What happened to the HODLers of coins like Litecoin (LTC) and Stellar (XLM)?

Near the end of 2021, there was a huge market downturn due to various market and macroeconomic factors which shook the crypto world to its core. It was at that time that I decided to ask some long-term holders of various crypto and non-crypto assets what they thought about keeping an asset for long periods. The responses were surprisingly different.

You might think, "surely, long-term HODLers must all have forgotten about their assets and everything is going just fine for them". Contrary to that belief, it's kind of a mixed bag. You see, it all boils down to how each investor defines 'long-term'. One person may say that 'long-term' means one year, while another might say 10, 50, or even 100 years (i.e., an inter-generational investment). I asked the reason why an investor might want to invest for one year or one decade. The common answer was very short "market expectations".

Here's an example. Let's say that an investor wants to invest in Bitcoin. If he expects the market to have a bull run in 2022 followed by a long-term bear market in the next decade, why would he want to keep holding the asset by 2023? Market expectations are founded upon various beliefs about market dynamics. If an investor thinks that one year or one decade is long enough, another question arises. How frequently do you monitor such an investment? Again, there were different responses.

It all depends on short and long-term goals. For example, one individual may want to take a small piece of their investment profits to purchase their favorite meme coin like Dogecoin. Thus, during their hodling experience, they would want to monitor the charts for potential unrealized gains. Another individual might be able to see a financial crisis looming in the distance and may need to withdraw some of those gains from their investment mid-way through the year. As one can see, the type of goal determines the frequency of checking the charts. And this is where the challenge comes in.

The rate of new investors in the crypto space has increased massively over the past decade. While long-term or veteran crypto HODLers have seen their share of the volatility of the past few years, the new investors may feel like volatility is a tidal wave. Once they see the charts going down, massive FUD starts to kick in and the urge to sell goes into overdrive. As one long-term HODLer put it, "it's the urge you have to resist".

Charts are not the only 'bane' of a new long-term investor. It's also the general doubt that goes into a new or unknown investment. To give some background on this perspective, think back to the dawn of the social media 'era' when MySpace ruled the airwaves. When Facebook came on the scene, some investors may have said, "Hah! Why invest in Facebook when there's already MySpace". Oh were they so wrong.

Challenges such as FUD, short-term FOMOs, and other temptations can either make or break new investors in the crypto space. What is your take on the challenges of HODLing a crypto asset? Do you have a HODLing story that you want to share? You are welcome to place it in the comments section below.