As a means of maintaining value, in the present bitcoin has been defeated. On 12/17/17 btc=$19379 and today 7/11/18 btc=$6345. A drop of $13034 or $501/week. I bailed when I looked at the slope and the previous 2 weeks saw 5.05%/week drop. Right now the the $501/week average amounts to 2.57%/week.
But compare the price today the price from past years. Even if you take the price exactly 1 year ago, which is not even a good buying point, you still have a gain from $2000 to $6400.
The problem with these kind of analysis is it compares ATH, which was a ridiculous pump, to the current price. While completely disregarding the bigger picture.
I think the point is that it could have been real. Somewhere that belief Bitcoin was a place to put money in bad times was killed. Maybe it was the MtGox theft. But at one time a real continued rise to great numbers could have been possible and some of us who had been around for the $100 -> $1000 rise believed it was happening. Those of us not stock/bond market analysts. That it was a deliberate pump to 12/17/17 then a really disheartening decline was intentional by those who knew of the tulip bust, that arguably from tulip futures. The bigger picture of financial analysts isn't visible to me but it didn't include Bitcoin remaining a 'store of value' of any consequence.