By now, it seems that most of the original arguments about Bitcoin becoming the currency of the future didn’t pan out. In fact, very few people seem eager to spend Bitcoin because everyone wants it as a speculative investment vehicle. The narrative about what Bitcoin will be used for continues to wander, but for whatever reason the Bitcoin crowd doesn’t want to admit that it holds a unique place as a speculative investment and trading vehicle that has one foot outside of regulatory boundaries, making it inherently attractive to people hoping for abnormal returns.
This is also why you see big banks taking on numerically large positions that are nevertheless a very small portion of their overall portfolios: It’s a weird investment that might produce interesting returns, or it might not. Unfortunately, this news usually gets spun into hot takes that banks secretly predict Bitcoin is the future currency, which leads to more hype and more investment. This effectively makes large Bitcoin investments a self-fulfilling prophecy, as long as the banks manage to get out before the next big down cycle.