Reflecting on Bitcoin in 2014

Back in 2014, people said Bitcoin was the worst investment ever since it took a nosedive of over 50%. If you had thrown in $10,000 into these assets back then and just held on until now, here’s the deal: S&P 500 would be around $30,000 Nasdaq would be about $45,000 Apple could have netted you between $80,000 and $100,000 Gold would sit at roughly $20,000 And that same $10k put into Bitcoin? You'd be looking at around $800,000 to $1,000,000 today.

Often times when I see posts like this, I ask how many people who bought bitcoin in 2014 manage to hodl their coins for more than a decade of volatile history. The best thing anyone in the crypto space can do for themselves is to buy bitcoin and hodl regardless of the time period.

On the flip side March 1st 2014 Netflix was $6.50 a share July 2015 there was a 7 to 1 split Nov 2025 there was a 10 to 1 split Math $10000 / 6.50 a share = lets call it 1500 shares 1500 * 7 for the 1st split = 10500 10500 * 10 for the 2nd split = 105000 shares 105000 shares at $78 = $8 million You can always pick and choose times and amounts to make things look the way you want them too. Yes I buy and hold BTC Does not mean it has been my best investment. -Dave

I would just add that there is a well-known saying in the markets: ‘Past performance is no guarantee of future results.’ In addition, as we all know, there were a lot of people who bought at that time but sold when the price dropped, at a loss. Or who held on for a while but sold when the price doubled or tripled. Looking back and saying that if you had bought x asset and held it for x amount of time you would have become rich is a fairy tale.

Every body is an 'expert' in any subject nowadays.  If you open up an article and let it tell you what to put your Money in or what to do today with your life, you are not going to end too well.  Not to mention how many people only read article titles and believe they are the smartest in the room.  Let them be failures.  It is their choice after all. Few.  Very few.  Did you get to hold through all the volatility your self all the time? Going from 10 thousand Dollars to almost a million, there are so many moments to stop before finally reaching that amount.  Turn 10,000 in to 100,000, you would not want to cash out?  Would you still wait for that '10x'?

At some point, they have to sell.  We cannot realize profit if we don't sell our holdings.   The best thing anyone can do for themselves is to be able to sell their holding at a point that the profit can change their lives and elevate their financial status to the point that they won't go hungry until their later generations. But I admit, lucky are those who have been able to hold BTC since 2014, but I feel sorry for those who lost their seed phrases and private key of their holdings due to carelessness.

Don't forget, Bitcoin holders also receive several rewards from the hard fork, and one of it is BCH, or Bitcoin Cash. So, Bitcoin holders who have held Bitcoin from the past until now have benefited greatly. Well, I don't really understand stocks, but it seems some shareholders also receive some kind of reward from the company distributed profits, or what is known as dividends. Besides that, I am sure many people used to underestimate Bitcoin, and many didn't believe its price could reach its current level. Maybe, some time ago, many didn't believe Bitcoin could reach $100,000, but in reality, Bitcoin has, and I am sure it will reach $1 million in the next few years, sooner or later. By the way, Bitcoin is a revolutionary transaction tool; its usefulness is very useful for its speed, and it can be done anywhere, anytime. So, Bitcoin will always be useful at any time. My simple question is, can fiat be transferred anytime and anywhere easily? I don't think so, even international money transfer services have limitations, and require several requirements that delay the process, whereas Bitcoin? All you need is only a computer and an internet connection. You can even use an old computer to use Bitcoin. In essence, Bitcoin is very valuable for anything, including for investment or as a transaction tool, and this is closely related to its future price which will become more valuable. Cmiiw.

Did you invest in Bitcoin in 2014? If you didn't, what have you done about it now, seeing you know what it's worth and value stands to be. Bitcoin may be going through a dip but it would rise as always and am sure the calculations you did were over a period that includes both dips and pumps, that is, bear season and bull seasons together to make a substantial return.

I usually these kinds of throwbacks in contents online and they're highlighting any asset that they like to. We know on how profitable bitcoin is if someone has invested long time ago and that's why we're leaning onto holding it for the next years to come. But just as dave has said, there are also other investments or stocks that have been also profitable over the period of time and due to these subjects and comparisons, they're not highlighted. Anyway, it's always the thought that if we can ever go back in time, we can have these investments. Going back into those times, I'm one of those naive person that have nothing to invest with and still trying to figure out what life is.

Op this comparison you made shows why Bitcoin is unique. Stocks and gold compound slowly with lower volatility while Bitcoin compounds through extreme drawdowns. From 2014 to today, BTC went through multiple 70–80% crashes and still outperformed everything listed. The million-dollar outcome wasn’t just buying, it was surviving volatility without selling.

All the people who hodled from 2014 that i know had well paying day jobs at the side, and some of them still do. That's how they were able to hold during the crashes. And i don't know anyone who just hodled. Many of them got more bitcoins from their altcoin trades and sold at least some of their bitcoins after 2017. It's also really hard not to sell when you have a family and money is low, meanwhile you could have bitcoins worth more then you can make your jobs in years, dropping in value more then you can make in years. Try to explain with a straight face to your family how you are not gambling with your family's money then, because even if you were right in the end, there's no way you would have known that.

I can tell you this for fact that anyone who actually bought from 2014 at such price would have either sold in 2020 and bought back or sold a portion and never bought back again because he has others left. We all could say that there was actually some wallets who since those years have been dormant and that means they held all long since then, but I can say that many actually had different wallet then which weren’t linked together and some or most of them actually took profit on some of their other wallets. We all can agree that now it is actually easy to held but not then when bitcoin was highly volatile, one morning you see it pumping up and you agree you made the best decision, the next day it’s falling as though the hatred of others were justified and it was actually a Ponzi scheme. This was how the investors then were facing the market and you think 10,000x wouldn’t be tempting to sell off

I agree with you! I started my BTC journey in this forum in 2017 and I was earning around ~$5 to $7 BTC per week on signature campaigns. During that time, 1 BTC was equivalent roughly to ~$4,000. I thought I was a King when I first received my paycheck from my campaign signatures. Unfortunately as a young college student back then who knew so little on BTC, I quickly spent around 90% of my BTCs. Do I regret selling my BTCs in hindsight? DEFINITELY! Had I known that its price would skyrocket at its price now? NOPE! Did I learn the lesson of HODLing with that experience? DEFINITELY! Now that I know better, I will definitely be HODLing my BTCs for at least 10-20 years from now; or for as long as I am comfortable selling at a price that I will be satisfied about.

Well the fact that people said it was the worst investment doesn't mean they where wrong or something. Yes I know that Bitcoin is a good investment no doubt, but most times people judge by what they see and witnessed, and if you observe back then Bitcoin had just little story for one to understand its nature of dip retracment etc.. So that might be the reason why some did not invest and it is totally alright,no need for regret and calculations of how much you would have realised by now, there is always today (present) for you to invest again. The past is gone let's focus on building the future. I even see some post saying it was unwise for some people to not invest back then, and you don't consider reasons behind that, you just run into conclusion, let the past be fellows

Investment be damned - the 'crash' followed a rapid spike to just over 1k$ per BTC and was just an overheated market adjustment. Once prices once again better reflected a more realistic value BTC and started progressing up again, those who bought-in later that year did just fine. In my case: I was a miner who started in Feb 2014 with 2x BFL Jalapenos running 10 GH/s each. They paid for themselves in under a month and I was hooked... Still mine but now at a much smaller scale. Thing is - around 80% of BTC earned was poured right back into upgrading/expanding the Farm. Ran that for 8 years. Do I wish I could have kept the >90BTC I spent on growing my mining farm? Hell yes but then again I would not have been able to mine and earn as much as I did. I retired a couple years ago and lost the very sizable power deal between my biz partner and I. Was great while it lasted! Cashing out Bitcoin paid off the mortgage on my 1st house back in 2020. Last year cashing out more Bitcoin (at just under the ATH)  has allowed my purchasing a final home out in the country for my SO and me. Even after that, as it is I still have a nice nest egg that should last my significant other and I until we are gone from this Mortal Coil.

It's mostly people who bought at the top and become bitter after the dump. Buying at the top when hype is at peak is always bad regardless of the investment they choose. Gold was dumping from its all time high dramatically to $4430, people are dunking on it even though gold has been on a massive bullrun. They are mad because they bought too late. You could never satiate people's greed for endless bullrun.

Those who invested in Bitcoin in 2014 and have held on to it until now are successful whale investors. Because they are currently in the midst of making huge profits, they will continue to make more money as long as they hold on to their Bitcoin holdings. But I feel sorry for those of you who have lost the key due to your carelessness. Because many people have put their accumulated Bitcoins away, they have been able to eliminate their future financial needs. However, the price of Bitcoin is still under the control of investors, so it is quite a good time to buy Bitcoin and hold it for the future.

There are many reasons from 2014 bringing people to "use" bitcoin in some way. I invested too in these years but money from a poor salary and as a normal salary man I had even to spent some of these coins "for daily expenses". I pay one taxe ride around 10-15K EURO with ATH value, but I don't regret at all... Was I a bad investor? Maybe no maybe yes ...Going all in and making a long term hodl seems very easy . Nowadays . after 12 years. At that time it was very hard to find useful explanations and easy setup. Now How many people are taking the same risk ? bitcoin has always been "expensive"... I will not suprised to see other crazy increases in the next halvings.

Seen that one guy who say this. Only ignorant bunch be saying bitcoin is the worst investment ever like where are they in 2022 when bitcoin is ultra bearish. Where are they when bitcoin was 20k in 2022 like hello? even if the world get turned upside down and the market going down 80% from all time high they WOULD still be in profit.

Hindsight is 20/20 vision Few people back then were looking at buying Bitcoin and looking at the future $100,000 target price point. Others would have looked at the value being ~$300 and wondered how the hell it was so high and that it was going to implode and never regain. As mentioned above its very easy to look back at any snapshot in time and compare then to now, all we can do is commend those who had the vision to get into Bitcoin before 2014 and HODL through the negativity.