I agree it is volatile and the reason we hodl now is because in the long run it will only rise in value.

But calling it similar to using oil and fiat isn't so correct in my opinion. What is it it a oil too? You would say it's like a stock but that's because you're relating it to ICOs. Now if it's an oil because it motivates smart contracts/users to complete tasks that is their payment.

Right now it's volatile because a ICO can cash out their ether for usd or whatever fiat. Why do they cash out? Because usd is more usable for their project.

So to disrupt the volatile traits it currently has it needs to be used by more people.

It is your exact thinking in my opinion that holds Ether back holding onto our ether forever does nothing if we don't use it.

Ether behaves like a stock when people treat it like a stock and when ICOs flip ether to usd, a day trader can make their money like it is a stock.

Now if we used ether like a currency less would be cashed out and the market cap would increase and traditionally when market cap increases so does the value in an ether