My 10+ year crypto journey

Have seen a few people make these and realized just how long I've been following crypto by comparison to most, so thought I would share my story and my thoughts in case it helps anyone

• 2010 - I'm reading some random internet forum to kill time and somehow come across this new internet currency called "bitcoin." It sounds interesting, I consider mining some but my laptop is barely staying alive as-is, there are some people selling it through paypal so I think about buying some in case it explodes and hits $1/coin or something like that (it's currently worth a few cents) but I decide it's not likely and I would probably get scammed anyway, so I move on

• ~2011/2012 - I'm playing a private Everquest server and the guy running it announces he's going to start selling in-game items for bitcoin to help keep the server running. Turns out it's trading for $5/coin now, I hate myself a bit for not buying in when I first heard about it. I think about buying some again, I'll spend some and hold some, but I would have to give my bank info to some shady site that I don't trust, plus I'm pretty sure I already missed the boat and it's too late to buy in now, it will probably crash soon anyway.

• 2013 - I see a news article that BTC just hit $100 and I absolutely hate myself for missing the boat once again. This time I'm absolutely SURE it can't go any higher though, so I don't waste my money.

• Late 2013 - Holy shit it's not stopping, it crossed $1,000! I'm not sure it's possible to hate myself more. It has to crash soon, right?

• 2014 - It finally crashed, but it's still way higher than I ever thought it could go. I start trolling around some crypto forums and hear about this new joke coin called dogecoin. It's super cheap, probably won't ever amount to anything, but I can buy a few million of them for just a couple hundred dollars so might as well, right? Maybe it will hit 1 cent someday, doesn't seem likely but neither did bitcoin. I finally make my first crypto purchase, I buy 2.5 million dogecoin, I think I paid around $300. Shortly afterward, it exploded and at it's peak was worth $10,000. Then it dropped again and settled at around $500, I sat on it.

• 2016 - I want to buy something online and the seller only accepts BTC. I check the charts and it hasn't done much in a couple years, so I buy a bit of it, some to spend and some to hold. That gets me back onto the crypto forums and checking the charts, Ethereum catches my interest and is already the #2 coin by market cap, since dogecoin has lost all hype and been dead for a couple years now I trade all of my dogecoin for Ethereum. Shortly afterward, ETH lost half it's value and I panic sold. Shortly after that, it recovered and I bought back in for twice the price I originally paid (cutting the size of my ETH portfolio in half).

• 2017 - I finally get to ride a bull run. It's awesome, I'm watching my investment explode and spending all my time on crypto forums. I throw a couple hundred extra at a bunch of shitcoins and enjoy the ride

• 2018 - 2020 - I HODL. I've missed enough opportunities, I'm more willing to watch my holdings go to $0 than I am to let another bull run happen without being on board. I even buy a little bit more BTC and ETH when I see how low they get in 2020.

• 2021 - I watch another bull run happen without being on board, in dogecoin, the one I got rid of. My holdings would have been worth over $1 million if I held. I track down my old doge wallet info desperately hoping I'm remembering wrong and that I'm still holding some, but it's empty. The ETH I traded it for is up nicely, but a small fraction of what the doge would have been worth. Strange how upsetting it is to be up 1000% on an investment when you realize you could be up 10,000%.

So that's where I am now, just HODLing what I still have. I've seen a lot of posts here from people who think they are too late, or who want to sell in a crash to avoid more losses, so I want to encourage everyone to look at the long term charts. This could be another year long crash like 2018, or it could be another quick summer crash where it recovers and takes off like in 2017. Don't try to predict what it's going to do, if you believe in it just ride along.

I've lost millions in potential profit from panic selling, thinking I was too late to get in, and trying to outsmart the market over the past decade. Don't be like me.