The Background

Over 2023 and a large part of 2024 I had been collecting a lot of HBD. I had my author rewards set to 50% Hive/50% HBD. This resulted in a growth in both tokens. With the Hive I got some small returns in curation rewards and the 20% interest gave me a very nice monthly amount of extra HBD.

The dropping price of Hive, at a point it dropped back to $0.17 and the reduction of the interest on HBD savings from 20% to 15% triggered to change my plans.
In September 2024 I traded all my HBD (approximately 3800) for Hive (23,166.337) (blog)
With this large power up my Hive stake grew to 30,000 HP. This larger stake made me focus more on manual curating to both help others on the platform as well as receiving curation rewards.

Focus on Hive Power

My enlarged stake made me a bit more active on Hive, both with curating as with creation of blogs. A couple of weeks ago I decided to set myself a goal and that goal was to become an Orca on Hive (blog). My focus would be completely on collecting Hive. I had set my post payouts to 100% Hive power and converted all extra HBD into Hive.
This change of plans resulted in a steady account growth from 30,000 Hive Power to over 33,000 Hive power at the moment.

It was really cool to see that my upvotes suddenly made impact. My 100% upvote grew to $0.30 - $0.40 and even very small upvotes resulted in rewards above the dust payout threshold of $0.02.
This was perfect for engaging more in the newly released Snaps.

I was really enjoying my status and focus on working towards becoming an Orca.....

But then...

...altseason started. Hive price surged. First to $0.25 and then to $0.30 and now to $0.40.
I was excited that the Estimated Account Value raised above $14K and my upvotes became even more valuable.

On the other hand I realized that this price surge could very well be a temporary one. I have seen more of these peaks in the past. This year we've also seen the price go to $0.47 in March and slowly go back down in the month April again. It even continued to drop in the months May-September where it, as I mentioned earlier in this blog went down to $0.17.

This sudden rise in price made me rethink my tactics. I also mentioned in my Orca blog that I would keep my eyes open for opportunities. And I think this is a great opportunity to multiply the amount of Hive over a longer period.

I sold my Hive for HBD when Hive was $0.175. When I buy back HBD now it would cost me less than half of that amount to get the same amount of HBD I had. This seems like a great opportunity to buy even more Hive whenever the price drops again.

So that's why I decided to Power Down.

A price drop again

In the meantime the price of hive has already gone down again. At the moment of writing this blog it is back to $ 0,31 again. This is still a lot more than the initial $ 0.175 I bought them for in September, but I doubt of I will trade them for HBD at this price.

But I do continue my power down so I will have some liquid Hive ready in case the price goes up again. In that case I can react quickly and do a conversion.
Although I have started to Power Down all my Hive I have only done it to get more Hive on a weekly basis. I don't intend to withdraw all Hive and will cancel the power down after a few weeks.
It's just to have a fair amount of liquid hive available in case of a sudden increase in price.
My goal is to have a better balance between HBD and Hive so I'm spreading the 'risks' a bit more.

Pros and Cons

Yes, this is a decision that is not without risks. When will I convert my Hive to HBD? And will the price of Hive keep rising after that? And what if it even grows to $1 and beyond and will stay this high forever.
Yes, that is a risk, but I'm willing to take that risk.

First of all I don't think it will stay this high. Although results in the past are no guarantee for the future, the past does show many highs and lows. And besides that, keeping all my funds in Hive Power is risky itself as well. By converting a part of my Hive to HBD I'm spreading the risk over two different tokens.
This will give me both the profits for curation (although they would be a bit lower than now) as well as HBD interest. I remember receiving $57 a month with a $3800 stake HBD with the 15% interest rate. This is HBD I can use to buy Hive tokens again. Maybe I could even buy it with DCA (Dollar Cost Average).

All in all I see more pros than cons, so I stated a power down.
It takes a total of 13 weeks to liquify Hive. Every week you receive 1/13 part. This way I minimize the risk a bit. I can choose to buy back HBD over a couple of weeks time and profit from an eventual additional increase in price. And if the price drops I can still choose to stake the Hive again.

• I'm spreading the risk
• I have a combination of curation rewards + interest
• HDB price is relatively stable
• HBD gives 15% interest

• If Hive continues to grow I need to buy back Hive at a higher price

Final thoughts

Yes, I know I'm taking a risk, but I think it was a bigger risk to buy HBD when it was $0.175
And the most important thing with investments is: Never use money you cannot miss. I am not dependent on income from Hive. Most of the value was created on Hive itself by blogging, curating or HBD interest. I've invested a lot of time, but even if this turns out to be a bad choice, I still have had a great time on Hive and I still have enough funds to play around here.
The power down is by no means to transfer funds out of Hive. I still believe in Hive and will buy back Hive again at the right moment, just like I did last September.

And finally for those who read my complete blog (respect!)

Do your own research!

Really! As I stated above I'm not dependent on my Hive stake. Even if I might lose half of it or even completely it wouldn't be disastrous for me. I have a good job which I like and enough savings in my 'regular' bank account to feed my family even when times get rough.
When you don't have this luxury situation and do need the money you generate on Hive: Don't take the risk!

Thanks for reading my blog!

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FriendlyMoose

Creating blogs about photography, cycling, gardening, craft beer and more...

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