Bitcoin Purists Appear to Be Bidding The 'HODL' Life Adieu

(Bloomberg) -- With Bitcoin settling in a narrower trading range following its dramatic price collapse, it seems the "HODL" life is no more.

At least that’s suggested by data collected by one Reddit.com user who noted the relationship between the number of times the term "HODL" was used in postings on the site and the changes in cryptocurrency market capitalization.

Despite an "explosive” increase in the use of the word -- an intentional misspelling of "hold," signifying the practice of not selling in times of despair -- in December and January, posters have increasingly backed away from its use since early February. In fact, HODL decreased by almost two-fold since then, according to data collected from the popular DataIsBeautiful subreddit.

The data seems to suggest that market volatility increases the number of HODL comments. “An increased [number of] HODL mentions weren’t just associated with days with the largest losses,” the user said. “In fact, market volatility in either direction was correlated with an increase of HODL mentions.”

With pundits seemingly abandoning the HODL mantra, the question remains if it indeed translates into a shift in investor sentiment that prolongs the bear market of the last few months.

To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Wolf in New York at jwolf71@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jeremy Herron at jherron8@bloomberg.net, Dave Liedtka, Randall Jensen

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