But I disagree. What makes "Bitcoin", or, if you'll allow, cryptocurrency keep becoming more popular isn't just hype. There's a lot, but I feel like there'd be more.
No, it's because everyone has their own reason for using it. Some people want to hedge against x, and use Bitcoin. Some want to get paid but not subject their users to ads, and use BAT.
Some want to exchange small amounts with friends on the net, or for food, and use Bitcoin Cash, or Litecoin, or whatever's currently got a stable-ish price, because it's that easy to swap in and out of cryptocurrencies.
Cardano, for all of its technical flaws, has sentiment behind it to stand stable. Perhaps like Bitcoin this will come at the dismay of the technical community - or perhaps more people will realize with the current speed of information proliferation, we truly do live in a partially post-truth world. Sentiment is ALL that matters for these matters.