# There are a bunch of metrics that are very positive for bitcoin:
1. With the fall of FTX/Alameda, and previously 3AC and Celsius, more users are realizing that an old rallying cry for bitcoin still holds true: not your keys, not your coins. Every new 'generation' of users (bitcoin is in its eternal September) has to learn the same lessons as others learned before. So, you would expect to see more self custody of coins, and that is precisely what the on-chain metrics show. See also https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/mt-gox-hack/
Good luck safely store your money being Russian or Iranian (or other citizen of any fascist regime who is considered not a human by both his own country and westerns). Not a legitimate case, I suppose.
I use bitcoin to buy things all the time. Full stop. I've made a bunch of money from that investment too. Full stop. Having a currency that is not bound to a state can very possibly be a good thing. Full stop. Scams exist in many industries and in crypto it is rampant due to its lax regulations but that doesn't mean the industry is a scam by definition. Full stop.
There are many avenues to transact moneys. Crypto is one of them. It has a handful of really good use cases. I agree that there are often (usually?) better ways, but cryptographic blockchains that house value to the tune of billions of USD and never goes down or breaks is quite powerful and should be respected as such rather than being seen as purely inferior.
1. With the fall of FTX/Alameda, and previously 3AC and Celsius, more users are realizing that an old rallying cry for bitcoin still holds true: not your keys, not your coins. Every new 'generation' of users (bitcoin is in its eternal September) has to learn the same lessons as others learned before. So, you would expect to see more self custody of coins, and that is precisely what the on-chain metrics show. See also https://buybitcoinworldwide.com/mt-gox-hack/
2. Real-world adoption is growing with great products like Strike build on top of the fast and cheap Lightning network (one of the various second layers build on top of L1 Bitcoin). See https://bitcoinist.com/watch-jack-mallers-send-free-instant-...
3. More people realize the long view, and buy and hold for multiple years. See also https://bitcoinmagazine.com/markets/the-hodl-model