In financial slang, a bagholder is a shareholder left holding shares of worthless stocks.[1] The bagholder typically bought in near the peak, when people were hyping the asset and the price was high, and held it all the way through steep declines, losing a large amount of money in the process.
It can also refer to the holder of other assets and financial instruments that become worthless, such as the junior bonds of a defaulted company or the coins of a failed cryptocurrency. The word is derived by combining shareholder with the expression "left holding the bag."