I'd say the only similarity that BTC has to Gold is that it has somewhat become a Store of Value. It's traded of course, like many assets (physical and digital) but like XAU, many people who have it do just hold it.
There are no real useful use cases for BTC as it is still pretty expense and slow compared to many other crypto.
ETH is probably at the end of it's life cycle in terms of use cases. What has been done is great on Smart Contracts but the average joe will not be attracted to high gas fees when trading it (their are ways to do it cheaper but newbs will struggle at first and likely not have the patience). For example, even when it's cheap, and ETH to ETH transfer can cost you $6. When the gas is high, you might pay $40...not many will jump on board with that. If you compare assets like Dash, XRP, LTC and many more. They move any amount in seconds (XRP) and it's super cheap. $0.0000001. Better of waiting for ETH2.0...if we're alive to see it.
I'm not a huge fan of the Crypto Punk and Ape culture via NFTs - they've exposed a market but it's mostly celebs or influencers launching which makes much of those unobtainable for your average collector.
I've done "ok" off some crypto stuff but was "in" pretty early. But my motive back then wasn't to make money - I was motivated by blockchain and public ledgers. I love the triple accounting element that this brings. Just by making everything public. XRP is probably one of the most transparent for this. I also can't wait until the XRPL (the ledger) has their version of NFT's running because yet again, it will bring more accessibility because it's purely so cheap so everyone can get involved and build on it. With that also comes interoperability, so even other assets (any assets) will be usable on it. Much like multiple assets can already be traded on it at a very nominal fee.
Imagine for one minute trying to send a bunch of emergency funds to someone in NZ or India or Africa or East Asia. It could be family or friends, someone travelling and so on. Yes, we can do that today and it's quick ish (I think 2hrs but can take upto 48hrs maybe longer) but even then you have to pay the top end of a premium to send a cross border transfer. People in some of those places can probably ill afford to pay the fees so it becomes limiting as to who can. Little johnny on his parents funded 2yr gap year in Bali is ok as they probably couldn't give a fuck what it costs. With this premium added, say Western Union or MoneyGram (although MG are using XRP for some currency pairs), the person then needs to send more funds to make it worthwhile as a low amount of funds still incurs the same fee.
People say "but PayPal can do that". Well it can't. PayPal might be able to make quick payments but settlement is still an issue. Plus they do still take a cut/charge you. This again is poor for the wider world problem of X-TFR (cross transfer). XRP solves that problem, along with some other emerging digital assets too. You can send any amount, anywhere in the world, for near on free (again, it's $0.000001 ish). As well as paying it in seconds, it also settles in secs in real time too. Suck on that SWIFT and SEPA. I've done it, several times. Had a guy in Aussie send me 100 XRP in 2017 to test his project he was building on the XRPL. Within 5secs it was in my account. We did a few tests and then I sent him 50 back (he said to keep the other 50 for my time, we spent about 10mins max) and in 5secs he had 50XRP back in his account. The key thing here to remember is both the payment and settlement time. Never will you have this pending funds bollocks like you do in traditional banking. No bother on a Bank Holiday and you don't need to pay a premium to use the service.
If mainstream banking in the west, doesn't jump on board to use XRP or similar for cross border transfers then they're bloody stupid or too institutionalised to see the benefit. The rails are already laid for them to use it.
Oh and if you're wondering about off and on-ramping FIAT, if you need to get it "out", places like Uphold and Xumm Wallet (a personal fave and I know the creator) both offer facilities to turn your digital funds into physical reddies (if that's your devaluing bag).
So FDB is supposedly the BTC Fanboy. I guess this makes me an XRP Fanboy. Regardless, as they mentioned, we're all incredibly early on the curve even if you invest/gamble/punt/ whatever today. Yes it's volatile in some markets and yes you must use caution and as every single fucking person in crypto with a smidge of credibility repeatedly says "This is not financial advice". Please see Samdy for that