Hey Ted,
Thanks for sharing your state-of-the-market, big fan of this series :)
I don't intended to spread FUD but here are a few of my concerns in regards to the points you mentioned re: BTC.
There seems to be a small but increasing interest to use competing alt-coins as a base trading pair. SBI (Japanese exchange) recently announced it will be using XRP as a base trading pair as early as 2Q of 2018. There was also another exchange which was working towards using BCH as a base pair for alt trading. On top of which there is always a possibility of a flipping (for fundamental reasons; increasing time & costs associated with BTC transactions).
ICO Markets; similar trend here, Stellar (XLM) is beginning to be used as a mechanism for funding ICOs. Huge Speed & Cost advantage for all parties involved over both ETH & BTC.
As for 3. Long-Term investments, 4. International Money Transfers, and 5. Store of value outside of 3rd party control; arguably any top coin aiming to function as a currency offer these functions better than BTC. (BCH,XLM,XRP,DASH...)
I would like to see the overall market increase (including BTC) and I strongly agree there is better long-term value to be found in the alt market.
RE: State of the Market - #11 Will Bitcoin Recover?