no one is buying and hoping it just retains value, which would make it useful as a currency, people buy and hope for the moon.
Maybe the merchants who are accepting bitcoin will be hoping for stable price levels because they usually do not want the fall down of prices after they accept bitcoin payments at the same time they are not looking for gaining extra profits by holding bitcoins.
People usually buy bitcoin as an investment rather than using as a currency, that is the reason they are always expect price appreciation, a common expectation from an investment.