Am I Missing Something?

So I remember the first run up of cryptocurrency and the excitement over a "new" currency that was totally fiat. Not based on nation states or this or that.

When this excitement wore off and it didn't seem like it was changing the world a great deal it fell.

Now it seems to be skyrocketing again.

I asked around, no one still uses it that I know, no business that I know or that others know seem to use it.

Is this because of the pandemic? Is this because of the massive amount of money flooding into tech and people being more exploratory with robinhood style investing these days?

What in the world is going on?