【Holding on is a hundred times harder than buying】
In 2014, Shanghai. An apartment changed hands for 900,000 US dollars. The seller was Zhao Changpeng. Instead of using that money to buy a bigger home, and instead of handing it over to any financial advisor, he did something that was almost ridiculous at the time—he exchanged his entire net worth for Bitcoin: 1,500 coins.
Back then, Bitcoin had nowhere near the halo it has today. There was no flood of believers—only price movements that people couldn’t make sense of. A few months later, the market took a sharp turn downward, wiping out nearly 70% of the value on paper. His mother was both anxious and furious, scolding him for being foolish: a perfectly good apartment, traded for what “mysterious internet money.”
If you hear that today, it sounds like a joke; back then, it was the reason everyone tried to talk him out of it—and also the excuse most people used when they sold at a loss. He didn’t redeem. He didn’t argue. He simply kept those coins, leaving the decision to time.
Many years passed, and time delivered the answer: 1,500 Bitcoins are now worth about 117 million US dollars. The apartment that once sold for 900,000 was left far behind by those numbers. According to public accounts, he still holds them to this day.
This story has spread so widely it sounds like an old tale. But the truly hard part has never been buying—it’s holding. Buying only takes a moment of courage; holding requires enduring a long slide, enduring your loved ones’ doubts, enduring the moment when “everyone says you’re wrong.”
After a 70% plunge, can you still dare to keep believing in what you hold?
So, if it were you—would you be willing to sell a house and buy one of those “mysterious internet currencies”?
In 2014, Shanghai. An apartment changed hands for 900,000 US dollars. The seller was Zhao Changpeng. Instead of using that money to buy a bigger home, and instead of handing it over to any financial advisor, he did something that was almost ridiculous at the time—he exchanged his entire net worth for Bitcoin: 1,500 coins.
Back then, Bitcoin had nowhere near the halo it has today. There was no flood of believers—only price movements that people couldn’t make sense of. A few months later, the market took a sharp turn downward, wiping out nearly 70% of the value on paper. His mother was both anxious and furious, scolding him for being foolish: a perfectly good apartment, traded for what “mysterious internet money.”
If you hear that today, it sounds like a joke; back then, it was the reason everyone tried to talk him out of it—and also the excuse most people used when they sold at a loss. He didn’t redeem. He didn’t argue. He simply kept those coins, leaving the decision to time.
Many years passed, and time delivered the answer: 1,500 Bitcoins are now worth about 117 million US dollars. The apartment that once sold for 900,000 was left far behind by those numbers. According to public accounts, he still holds them to this day.
This story has spread so widely it sounds like an old tale. But the truly hard part has never been buying—it’s holding. Buying only takes a moment of courage; holding requires enduring a long slide, enduring your loved ones’ doubts, enduring the moment when “everyone says you’re wrong.”
After a 70% plunge, can you still dare to keep believing in what you hold?
So, if it were you—would you be willing to sell a house and buy one of those “mysterious internet currencies”?
