"Hodling" is a crypto terminology born out of a typo mistake from the pioneer traders of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency. It was first used by a well-known Bitcoin day trader in 2013 while speaking at a Bitcoin forum.
This Bitcoin trader was quite bad at day trading and would lose much money. So he decided to leave his Bitcoin in his crypto wallet for a long time instead of trading it daily. So he announced a Bitcoin forum, but this announcement came with a typo. Instead of typing "I'm holding," this Bitcoin trader wrote, "I'm Hodling." This typing mistake led to the term "Hodling" cryptocurrencies. This term quickly spread across the crypto community.
Basically, it is now viewed as a way of referring to holding cryptocurrencies for a long time instead of day trading. So one can say, "I am a hodler because I hodl my cryptocurrency.
Hodling is my main strategy." This implies they are holding on to a cryptocurrency because they believe the value will increase in the long term. This term has become a word that differentiates those buying cryptocurrencies just for immediate profit and those believing in long-term price appreciation.
The Opposite of Day Trading
When the pioneer crypto trader implied that he was "Hodling" his cryptocurrencies, he meant that he would hold his assets for a long time. This became a trading strategy for those holding Bitcoin and other early cryptocurrencies. Instead of taking profits from cryptocurrencies whenever the price went up, they just left it there as they expected the price to increase further in the future. The same thing applied when the price of the cryptocurrency went down. Whichever the scenario, the principal objective of "hodlers" is to leave a cryptocurrency for a long time (as long as 10 years) in their wallet without selling any of it.
Hodling can be viewed as the opposite of day trading. With day trading, the trader is just trying to make a profit from the day-to-day fluctuations of cryptocurrencies in the market. They don't care about the value of the cryptocurrency in the future. They don't also care about the adoption of cryptocurrencies worldwide, so long as they are profiting from the price fluctuations. Essentially, to hodl crypto means you will hold on to it for a long time, while day trading is short-term.
About the Originator of The Crypto Terminology
Hodling is one of the most famous crypto terminologies, and it came from a Bitcoin trader called GameKyuubi.
GameKyuubi was constantly frustrated with the idea of day trading as he wasn't so lucky with the process. So he created a post on a Bitcoin forum named "I'm Hodling." This was where the whole crypto terminology came about. Instead of writing "holding," he made a typo mistake and wrote "Hodling."
Some of the original words from the GameKyuubi post still exist. There was a place where he wrote, "I SHOULD HAVE SOLD MOMENTS BEFORE EVERY SELL AND BOUGHT MOMENTS BEFORE EVERY BUY BUT YOU KNOW WHAT NOT EVERYBODY IS AS COOL AS YOU."