Being in the green doesn't negate the crushing loss you've suffered in the $19k to $6k drop. It's about opportunity costs, and the opportunity cost of not selling and continuing to hold is the direct result of those losses. If you bought 2 coins at $500, you've invested $1000. Right now you'd be sitting on about $13,000, which is great to be up that much. But you missed out on locking in the gain at $38,000. Being up is better than being down, sure, but who's smiling about the fact that the opportunity cost of not selling resulted in a loss of $25,000? Looking at it your way may be optimistic, but looking at it this way is pragmatic.