Recently, many friends have been asking me if it's too late to buy bitcoins now that their price has risen so much. To be honest, when I first got into bitcoin, everyone felt they were late, especially compared to the 'old players' who had hoarded coins since bitcoin was born, who thought it wasn't worth it to enter now. This kind of thinking is very normal.
But if you think about it carefully, you'll find that bitcoin's potential has not yet been fully discovered. If you randomly stop someone on the street and ask them, 8 or 9 out of 10 won't understand what bitcoin is; very few truly comprehend its value. Moreover, data shows that the number of people actually holding more than 1 bitcoin (not counting those on exchanges) may not even reach 800,000. Many people store their coins on trading platforms, which actually does not count as truly owning them — only by mastering the private key do the coins truly belong to you. Coins on exchanges will either be sold sooner or later, or they may be lost due to platform issues, which does not count.
Furthermore, many of the earliest entrants didn't make money either. For example, the famous '480,000 Brother' who promoted bitcoin everywhere when it first became popular, ended up selling all his coins after a few price increases, and later he couldn't catch up when the price soared and could only complain daily that bitcoin is a scam. The reality is that those who criticize bitcoin the hardest are often the ones who sold too early and missed out.
I only started getting into digital currency in 2019, and I really began hoarding bitcoins in 2020, which is later than many. But I understand one principle: to make money, it's crucial to hold on. Those who are wealthier than me and have more coins often find it harder to resist selling midway, investing in financial products, or lending to others, and in the end, they don't make any money. Some people are even more unfortunate; they accidentally lose their private keys, and the coins are lost.
So my experience is: you must manage your own coins, do not leave them on exchanges, do not entrust them to others, and definitely do not invest them. Although the speed of hoarding coins is slower than before, as long as the coins are in your hands, there is always a chance. It's like learning something; if you are not progressing, you are regressing. Hoarding coins means as long as you hold on, you can slowly accumulate. Those who keep fidgeting back and forth tend to end up losing everything. I truly hope that in 10 years, we can still hold onto these bitcoins.
