I completely agree with the HODL strategy, especially if you are not an experienced trader. Trying to time the market and guess what projects are going to take off in the short term is very risky.

Something to consider as well is that traders thrive in volatility, so it may be in their interest to hype projects or put out FUD in order to create major fluctuations. Crypto is an unregulated market as well, so it is highly susceptible to market manipulation by "whales." You can minimize risk by buying value not NEWS. Investing in what you see value in is a good long term strategy.
In stocks, its not uncommon for influential people to hype up a particular stock that they invested in early and then to sell that stock shortly after the hyped NEWS sends it to the moon. It would be naive to think that this sort of behavior didn't happen in the crypto world as well.

On another note, I thought the Lemur in the picture was trying to raise the nails out of the wood with its mind like a JEDI haha.