Mainly anonymous liquidity as digital cash. Secondly wealth protection - as an alternative to anonymous offshore companies and bank accounts.
Due to the exclusion from the existing financial system (USD/FIAT) including most CEXs, money don't flow easy in an easy out of Monero. Any large transfer into XMR (looks like a pump) is not followed by an equal sized dump.
- Risk-averse: Almost devoid of leverage (important: this is what makes all other assets classes crash on a downturn) and custodial setup, Monero offers protection against failures or fraud from financial institutions, government actions and personal threats or legal battles.
- Proven Resilience against all sorts of attempted attacks.
- The vast majority of the world's population is migrants, refugees or descendants. Where confiscation of property, bank accounts, gold is standard procedure even today. Monero is one of the few assets that can not be confiscated (or labeled and traced). You can cross the border and start a new life without worries.
- Monero is not a get rich quick scheme (compared to what you see with other coins). The growth is organic and reflects healthy, steady appreciation rather than speculative hype. But, it still do pretty well...
Long term chart:
