This is a very interesting topic, but very interesting indeed! Back there, in one of the first bull cycles of cryptocurrencies, where there were few altcoins, the first theme that came as "hype" was the "payment cryptocurrencies". Where many of these altcoins came with the promise of being "better than bitcoin", because as we know, BTC in its base layer is slow for transactions.
As a result, the cryptocurrencies that came with this narrative, such as Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash, appreciated a lot against bitcoin - but this was in the short term. In the long run, Bitcoin always appreciates against any other cryptocurrency.
The second Hype was the DeFi theme: decentralized finance and protocols such as Uniswap, AAVE and Pancakeswap were highly valued! Then the theme of NFT's. Who doesn't remember Neymar's Monkeys?
The last wave we saw was the Metaverse, where companies like Facebook even changed their brand name to Meta. Cryptocurrencies such as Sand and Gala had massive gains with this market moment. Remembering that this does not mean that these themes cannot come with everything in the next cycles, because anything can happen in the crypto market!
There are those who say that the next topic will be Ethereum Scalability: protocols such as Polygon and Optimism may be highlighted in the next cycles, but remembering: this is just speculation, therefore, invest responsibly!
So, in the long term, What We Expect for the Cryptocurrency Market is nothing short of Bullish! Compared to Gold, Stock Market and Real Estate, we are still a very small fraction and, as we are in the Innovation niche, we can reap great rewards in the future if we invest in the right assets!