As per my perception here is a lot of investor/trader who was comes in at early 2018 or may be in mid of the year. That time was the best time of crypto and ALT coins too. But later on this scenario was converted into downtrend and all coins were falling simultaneously. It was cause of FUD, huge movements in Bitcoin due to whales manipulation. As a result our portfolio was reduced on daily basis. Mostly people were hoping to bounce back market around their buy potion but this was not happen at all.
In that time how we confirmed our loss? When we were realize that market is going up and our coin is not moving we sold it and jumped in running train,
there we confirm our loss.
What was we need to do there was only patience. Because every coin always give you a chance to be survive your self by bouncing back near your buy rates.
Anyways past can't changed. If you are still try to keep you alive in crypto is keep calm, Trust in your choice, and HODL it. One more thing you should be in
a very potential coin, if you are HODLING shit coins, So you need to be brave and jump into a better coins.
Hope this will help you.
80% loss is not easy to recover especially if you have no plan on how to recover it but I agree with your statement that patience will surely help you to recover or even profit in the long run. As long as you are holding a potential currencies like bitcoin,ethereum and etc. then you still have chance to recover your 80% loss if you are ready to hold for a long term one.
Meaning you need to wait for another bull run in order to sell your investment in either the same price as you bought it or higher to it if the market will continue to obtain a new ATH record.