$AAVE's true value vs. current sentiment

Been watching $AAVE for a while now, sitting around $96.69. Intraday range today 95.79-99.73 isn't exactly signaling a breakout, but more importantly, I can't shake the feeling that the 'smart money' narrative around these DeFi tokens is just a more sophisticated version of meme stock hype. We're constantly presented with growth narratives, TVL, and innovation, but when you strip it all back, how much of that is truly priced into the current valuation, and how much is just optimistic future discounting? The daily price action feels more like retail momentum and the occasional whale than any fundamental re-evaluation.

Am I missing something obvious, or is the inherent volatility and rapid pumps/dumps just part of the game now, irrespective of actual development milestones? Push back on this; I'm curious where others stand.