The 7 year HODL - a short story of what it takes to "make it" it in crypto.

TLDR at the bottom
I am by no means a "Seasoned veteran." I haven't even been apart of this subreddit for very long. However I think my experience with crypto might be able to provide Newcomers (or anyone) some important perspective about How long one must HODL to "make it" in crypto.

Summer 2014
I discovered dogecoin and I was hooked. I spent my free time throwing spending money at whatever sketchy website at the time was accepting PayPal for dogecoin (dogecoin was like 0.0005 cents). And by the time summer ended dogecoin got dumped and my portfolio lost half its value. So, I swore off doge, I backed up my wallets and never thought about it again.....Until.

Fast-forward to January of 2018
Crypto was booming and it was all anyone could talk about. I disclosed to a small group of my friends that I think I still owned some dogecoin (which was trading around 1 cent). I was instantly ridiculed and pressured to "Sell before it’s too late.” I didn’t want to deal with the tax implications, so I didn’t sell.

Fast-forward to February 2021
I wake up to a friend frantically texting me, "DOGE COIN IS AT .07 GET OUT NOW." By the time I had mobilized my wallet and had my crypto exchange account validated It was "Too Late," Dogecoin dropped to .04 and then I thought oh well I guess I missed my moon shot.

Fast forward to April of 2021
On Wednesday April 14 Doge jumps up to ~12 cents. I diamond hands it. The next day Doge hits 23 Still diamond hands it. But by Friday doge hit 35 cents. I don’t know what it was about doge crossing the 30-cent barrier but every single one of my neuron was on full blast. My heart rate didn't drop below 120 the entire weekend while trying to decide if I should hold or sell. I remember thinking “what if this is the moon” so I proceeded to immediately "exit my position."

The lesson here
Do I regret getting out when I did because doge ended going higher than what I sold at, who cares because that’s not what this post is about. The point of this story is that it TOOK approximately 7 years and ignoring 3 separate “moonshots” to see the exponential gains everyone talks about. The long game is key here, even if you cant see that now.

Investment Gain [redacted]
ROI: 69,900%
Annualized ROI: 149.09%
Investment Length: 7.13 years

Disclaimers: This is not financial advice, please do what is right for you and/or your family

TLDR: 70,000% ROI took 7 years. succeeding in crypto requires that you HODL.