Great comment and although I had now idea that you had a background in the equity markets I had suspected it. It would be great to see some market analysis articles from you here on Steemit or did I miss them.
I have no background in finances but the nature of currency is a topic that interests me very much and I enjoy listening to lectures and reading articles that attempt to explain it.
Now that Wall Street is involved with ETF's and the inevitable market manipulation that follows I think that all bets are off. Still, what I see with Steemit is the chance for people all over the world, regardless of economic standing to participate in the mass distribution of a crypto currency without, at first, understanding it. They are then "forced" or better, incentivised to learn about using it and trading in and out of it.
Since transactions with other Steem holders are FREE it also offers a solution to micro payments which we don't see in other currencies.
Steem is still in its infancy and is now well over 1 billion in market cap (depending on the day :) ) and it seems that the general direction is up.
I think that the markets ARE starting to recognise the superiority of the Graphene blockchains and they are starting to move there projects onto them.
The facts show that, so far, the other coins are simply not widely distributed enough or cannot handle the volume to be viable currencies. All of this is subject to constant change in this, The Wild West of finance.
This Article and the subsequent discussion is very interesting regarding this topic.
Also This