However, 10 years later, Bitcoin has proved to be a new kind of financial instrument, with extremely useful properties unmatched by any other kind of asset.
At this point, of all the things Bitcoin can do that other financial assets can't (pseudo-anonymous, extremely hard to confiscate, can be moved quasi instantaneously across borders, demonstrably finite supply, can be use as a settlement layer for large players, etc ...) the one aspect that I believe attracts people is "store of value".
Many people contest that last property citing high volatility, and they're correct if your window is less than 4 years. But for folks who play the long game, supply and demand tells a verycompelling story for Bitcoin.
Calling Bitcoin a "currency" at this point is essentially incorrect and just creates confusion.