Then you followed only the news about easily sellable "I was early, butI sold it all" stories.
As I mentioned. Talk to OGs here. If you bought BTC in 2010 there was not even a Silkroad like market to buy your drugs. So people bought BTC because they understood what is wrong with the world/money. Those types never sold. Because they see fiat as the worthless tokens they are.
Later came druggies who used it for their own purpose.
Ironically you can see the same movement play out in Monero again.
1. you need those who understand money
2. you need real users
3. speculators will come in seeing value
...