Alts never recovered. Also is Bitcoin really near ATH or did the dollar devalue? Previous ATH was roughly $70k and in that period, Gold doubled. So reaching previous ATH in my math is roughly $140k. That does match, in my experience, the rising real livings costs of food, housing and services.

As long as professional scammers (Fin and crypto FinTech) believe they can extract more money, Bitcoin will grow. As crypto currency is still an underregulated asset there will always be more ways to extract money in a shady way. Basically fast-forwarding all the reasons for the regulations of conventional assets.