I'll posit that the 'crypto/blockchain-whatever' caused some curiosity in the market (both before and during COVID), COVID messed up everyone's plans for the recovery (recoveries take a long time without stuff like WW2 that cause other economical imbalances) and other political factors played in.

Not saying you're wrong about anything you're saying, to be clear.

Even songs we don't like have a lot of 'poetry' in their notes...