HODL - crypto piggy bank

2021 -  design fiction project

HODL was originally a drunken typo for ‘hold’ and has come to mean ‘hold on for dear life’ as a long-term investment strategy for amateur cryptocurrency traders.

At GRO we thought it would be interesting to imagine an object that made cryptocurrency feel more tangible and reflect its potential value better than a cheap memory stick or a file on a hard disk. Most importantly, it needed to overcome the very human anxiety of ‘do I sell now or hold on’ during a down-turn in market value.

Referencing an abstract piggy bank, a sealed glass vessel contains a magnetically levitating metal capsule containing cryptocurrency data. To access the capsule the outer glass vessel must be broken, creating an additional physical and psychological barrier to cashing out too early.