Ripple is a bad example, several financial institutions are "using" the technology but they don't actually have to buy XRP in order to do it. So there is no organic demand that can sustain the price.

The same cannot be said for Steem or Bitcoin. In order to transact on steem you need resource credits and for that you need to vest steem (power up). If enough people are using the chain that would greatly limit the available supply and the market forces would do the rest.

For Bitcoin you need to pay fees in order to transact so you actually need to acquire it to be able to use the blockchain.

That is how adoption can prop up the price in an organic way and not rely on just speculation.