It started with a misspelling in a post on Bitcointalk, a cryptocurrency forum, on December 18, 2013. The misspelling stuck, became a meme, and is used commonly in the crypto space.
The post is hilarious, evidently written by someone that was drunk at the time. It was a rant written in response to a sharp decrease in the bitcoin price. He lays out his reasons for not selling. He knows that he is a “bad trader” and the good ones “can only take your money if you sell.” He is done with trying to time the market.
So, the term HODL has come to mean staying the course with bitcoin. Not impulsively selling when the price falls or trying to make quick gains. It is a rallying cry of the true believers. It is applied to other cryptocurrencies as well.
HODL has also become known as an acronym for “Hold on for dear life.”
CryptoNotes 