Monero is really holding it's own better than many alts.

Bottom line... if Bitcoin stays at the front of crypto space Monero will still fill a valuable niche as one of the most cypherpunk projects in the whole space. 

The world still has a LOT of catching up to do when it comes to what BTC (and XMR) offers in terms of freedom and self sovereignty.

Some of you are old enough to remember how long it took to get a GUI.  One of the best parts about XMR not having a GUI was when it finally got one, the protocol, and the chain were old and proven enough to handle the greater usage it began to see.

I think the value not being realized is similar.  The utterly VAST majority of people do not understand why Monero matters.  Now what we need is second layer solutions to grow up enough that we start to see some cross chain interoperability.  When that happens Monero will (in my opinion) begin to show it's value as a chain with trust-able privacy implementation.

I would say that Monero is best used for commerce.  I think in some ways that makes it a bad investment.  However it should also be recognized as a way to privately store wealth.  In that regard it's hard to match.  Not BTC.  Not Grin, or ZCash.  I wish I could dig up a post I wrote years ago.  But it is truly the modern day Swiss Bank account.

People just don't know that yet.

Monero has exactly TWO enimys in my opinion.

1.  Eventually BTC is somehow able to integrate enough privacy to make it unneeded. (I think this is unlikely, but the LN might make the cash side work that way)

2.  Hidden inflation.

#2 is it's Achilles heel.  But even in that regard it would still have value.