The phrase “If you can’t hold, you won’t be rich”—popularized by Changpeng Zhao (CZ), founder of Binance—sounds like a mantra of financial patience. It urges investors not to panic, to wait for the rebound, to trust the long game. Yet beyond the glowing screens of trading platforms, many people live by a different rhythm: the rhythm of surviving one day at a time.
For those living on daily income, “holding assets” isn’t a matter of investor psychology—it’s a matter of survival. The money they earn today isn’t speculative capital; it’s food, rent, electricity. In that reality, holding is not a strategy—it’s a luxury.
This is where the gap between rhetoric and reality widens. CZ and other whales speak from towers of liquidity. They have reserves, time, and stability. They can wait. They can afford to watch the market dip without losing their homes or their peace of mind. But for the majority of their followers, every drop in price isn’t just a number—it’s the sound of dinner disappearing.
Such disparity creates a subtle bias in the crypto world. The “hold to be rich” narrative implies that wealth is purely a matter of patience, when in truth, patience itself is a form of privilege. Beneath the motivational tone lies an emotional trap: people who sell early because they need the money often feel guilty, as if they’ve failed some moral test of financial bravery. In reality, they’re simply responding to the economics of survival.
If crypto truly aims to be inclusive, the rhetoric must evolve. A more honest principle would say:
“If you can’t afford to lose, don’t hold what you can’t replace.”
In other words: don’t hold assets whose loss would shatter your daily life. Investing should not be about reckless courage, but about aligning risk with reality.
Here lies the paradox of crypto—a world that claims to decentralize wealth, yet remains deeply dependent on old hierarchies of privilege. The ones who can “hold” aren’t always wiser; they’re often just wealthier, and that’s the uncomfortable truth behind the glitter of digital freedom.
(note: I hope CZ read it).