There is volatility for sure. But the same is true for any asset: stocks, bonds, real estate, even gold. Albeit not as much as a currency only around for 20 years, as you said.

As for loans, lots of exchanges let you trade with leverage, effectively trading on borrowed money.

Also, there exist institutionally backed Bitcoin options: https://www.cmegroup.com/trading/equity-index/us-index/bitco...