The Panic Sell Story

David had been in Bitcoin since 2016. He’d watched it go from $600 to nearly $20,000 in 2017. He didn’t sell at the peak — he thought it was going higher.

Then 2018 arrived. The price fell to $15,000. Then $10,000. Then $6,000. Then $3,200.

Every week, David told himself he’d hold. Every week, the price fell further. His position, which had been up over 2,000%, was now barely in profit. The media had declared Bitcoin dead. Several friends who had asked him about it in 2017 were now conspicuously silent.

In December 2018, at $3,200, David sold everything. Not because he had a logical reason. Because he couldn’t take the anxiety anymore. The relief he felt was immediate and genuine.

For a year, he watched from the sidelines. Bitcoin stayed quiet. He felt vindicated.

Then 2020 arrived. The price started moving. Then 2021 came, and it reached $69,000.

David bought back in at $60,000. He couldn’t stand watching any longer.

He had sold at $3,200 and bought at $60,000 — a difference of roughly 1,800%. Everything he’d suffered through the bear market, every uncomfortable day he’d endured, he gave up at the last moment. And then paid nearly twenty times his exit price to get back in.

David’s story isn’t unusual. It’s one of the most common patterns in Bitcoin. The bear market doesn’t punish people for buying at the wrong time. It punishes them for selling at the wrong time.

Tomorrow: Block 1 recap and a book that covers the long-term case in full.

— The Daily Bit