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I'm trying to figure out what the significant storage costs for bitcoin are. It's a bit higher than a Robin Hood stock because it costs fees when buying/selling, but it's significantly lower than gold/silver which really require some investment in physical security or a vaulting service.

Mining and theft mostly.

It's the miners who are hemorrhaging hard currency. It's currently costing $8-10 billion per year to keep the BTC blockchain alive, but blockchain fees are paid when transacting, not when HODLing, so it's not a storage cost.

Miners get paid in BTC but have costs in money.

They have to sell, so the money is coming from buyers and impacts holders via reduced demand.

> Bitcoin holders as a group are constantly losing money by definition

Modulo market cap representing unrealized PnL, but yes otherwise. Miners and exchanges take a good cut.

Yeah the paper gains are nice, but they all net to zero in real money.