It is because of the way that these manipulators have manipulated the market that makes it look like bitcoin is only used as an asset alone. That 2017 increase to me did more damage to the market, because the way bitcoin surge so high was kind of too outrageous that it attracted many people who only came to the market to make money through cryptocurrency alone and not to use it as p2p that it was created for.
True. That pump did attract a lot of no-coiners and newbies who never heard of crypto to buy some bitcoin. But that was what the Tether manipulation was intended to do - pump the market to Bitfinex could cash out its store of coins. Many people got the hint that prices are going even higher from friends, neighbors and so they bought the news - the wrong move during a huge pump.
I want to see how those manipulators will survive in future when the volatility is no longer there and the price movement will be so little like the way it happens in the Forex market, then people would have embrace the currency purpose of it and be using it to make payment on so many merchant stores then either online of offline.
It wont become like Forex. There is a basic different between forex and crypto. In the former people buy and sell almost every minute and dont think about holding unless there is a news of a gradual rise or sudden rise. In crypto it is more about cautiously holding and waiting to sell and proper time and then buying back. So the manipulators will always exist. You cannot prevent them without bringing in regulation.