Question About/For Long Term Holders

Hi,

According to Michael Saylor, some of the recent sell off has been attributed to long term holders cashing out after 10+ years of holding. Saylor states this is an IPO effect--many IPO early investors do the same thing. This got me thinking very deeply. I realized that many of these long term holders/whales have been holding BTC since 2013-2017. That means they witnessed the insane euphoria of BTC in 2021 when it went to 60k and somehow didn't sell. Even when it went down to 16k in 2023 after the crypto winter. Still didn't sell.

I personally find that absolutely mind boggling. The amount of INSANE conviction to hold out on selling after it probably 100-1000x'd in price after years of HODL'ing. To witness a cycle or 2 and then see it dip after all time highs then still hold. That's crazy.

I definetely am inspired to hold for a long time while BTC is still in it's early-ish stages (now). However, I think 1 of 3 things must be true for these long term holders: 1.) These people really believed in BTC and/or 2.) They were likely already rich. You gotta be rich/well off to not spend a "risky" asset after watching it 100x in value in my opinion and just hold on. Either way I am really interested by this.

What do you guys think about this? Do you agree with me? These points make me not beat myself up about selling/not investing sooner in BTC. If I saw it 10x from 100 to 1000 USD I probably would have sold bc I needed the money at various stages of my life. I think most would. Except these long term holders.

Would love any input from long term holders as well.