LONDON: Arianna O'Dell, a 30-year-old entrepreneur and songwriter based in New York City, had a tumultuous four-year journey in cryptocurrency before selling her investments in February.
She is part of a relatively new class of retail investors who joined the crypto market years ago, helping propel bitcoin's price to a high of nearly US$20,000. Not willing to stomach the subsequent volatility and having lost hope in a recovery, many cashed out, and are now missing the latest bonanza.
Like O'Dell, however, several retail investors who had money on the line during prior bitcoin whipsaws expressed the same emotion about having divested: relief. "Today it's maybe more than the price that I sold, but I feel so much better because at least I don't have to put my mind in something I don't understand," he told a New York Times event.
Some small investors did hold onto their bitcoin, adopting the"HODL" mantra, which stemmed from a 2013 post where a user misspelled his intent to keep"hodling" bitcoin instead of"holding" it."They'll come in after their idiot nephew who still lives in their sister's basement makes US$100,000," said cryptocurrency consultant Colin Platt.
However, some experts also say a new wave of retail participation may be ahead, since Main Street investors typically amp up participation at the height of a bubble.
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