> The value of crypto comes from them being decentralized and independent of a financial bank.

The value of that is exactly zero when you live in a stable and developed country, and you are not engaged in criminal activity.

Cryptocurrency has value because people are willing to trade for it, whether money or goods. I don't understand why people are willing to trade for it, but to say it has literally zero value isn't exactly accurate.

Who is willing to trade it other than exchanges to purchase fiat currency? I've never found an item that I can actually buy with crypto, where the seller is not simply using crypto as a money transfer service. If a seller 'accepts' crypto via an exchange that converts it to fiat... that's not really crypto. That's just using it for money transfer, but we have way better solutions for that.

Other than one off gags, I've never actually seen anything being sold for crypto. Perhaps things are different where you live

If it can be exchanged for money that can be exchanged for stuff, it has value. I can't spend gold or equities at the grocery store but those are priced in dollars and have value as well.

Equities are not currency. Equities have value because of the dividends they pay (or retain).

Gold has value because it is scarce and can easily be verified, and has industrial uses. Moreover, you don't need a third party to check for gold. It is straightforward to ensure that gold is real if you have basic tools. However, if gold brokers did not exist and gold were not also easily divisible, gold would have little utility.

Bitcoin has value because of the exchanges. If there are no exchanges, then it has no value.

But, what all three of the above have in common is that the only reason they currently have any value in our markets is because they can be exchanged for pieces of paper that governments will throw you in jail for should you fail to pay them upon transfer of any of the above assets.

Which many people do not, and here we are.