Merchants don't adopt Bitcoin because their clients don't use it. Clients don't adopt it because merchants don't support it, and people want to have a payment method that can be used anywhere they go. How can this vicious circle be broken? Who will make the first move?
And by adopt I mean adopt for payments, not hodl it as an investment.
back in 2012-2015 was the best era where merchants were adopting it, and customers were using it.
but then the era of expensive transactions and network expansion avoidance occured.
arguments that bitcoin needs to run on windows 98 based specs and people should not be buying daily stuff like coffee and weekly wages of third world countries changed bitcoins ethos from 'banks for the unbanked' to payment rail for the elite
bitcoin is not seen as digital cash payment system, but now as national reserves payment system