To anyone getting into cryptocurrency this time around and didn't touch it in 2017, my main advice is to invest in Bitcoin first and foremost. Crypto is still very much in the early adopter phase, the most practical use of any token is an alternative to FIAT. There will be promising technologies and use cases out there, but just remember there is a higher than likely chance the technology will not get mass adopted and crypto is very volatile.
I see a lot of similarities to now as I did in 2017. Bitcoin saw a huge spike, and all the alt-coins followed shortly after as people thought that crypto was finally here. They thought they had a chance to get in on the next Bitcoin/Ethereum/etc. If Bitcoin didn't see this spike, nobody would be talking about Cardero or any of these other alt coins. I'm not saying Cardero or any other coin doesn't have practical uses or are a bad investment, just remember that XRP once made the news and was suppose to disrupt the banking industry by now.
At the end of the day if the value of Bitcoin goes down, so will the alt coins.