Satoshi Natamoto envisioned Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional fiat currencies. If Bitcoin had been trading on its core value proposition - the ability to be your own bank - then Bitcoin would have rallied with rising bank uncertainty
In the Whitepaper, he wanted bitcoin to be a payment system first. However, it evolved in the last 12 years, and it become a asset and so we think of it as a alternatie to fiat currencies now.
Bitcoin being an alternative to fiat currencies didn't just happen now or recently. I think Bitcoin was already an alternative to fiat currencies since its birth. It's a payment system. Fiat is the current payment system. Bitcoin came in as an alternative.
That it became an asset class is perhaps new because such perception of Bitcoin means many would rather collect and keep it than spend it as a real world money. But being an asset class does not mean it has now grown into an alternative to fiat currencies.