Crypto can be a productive asset in the way that a rail car is a productive asset. (I am using the term in its economic sense of "usable," not its moral sense of "useful.") Most BTC transactions are essentially repos - short-term loans dressed up as sales and repurchases. An exchange sells me some BTC, I send them to someone, and they sell the back to an exchange. The whole thing happens so quickly that one might best think of the BTC as having been RENTED by me and my payee together to move value between us. That is a productive use of BTC, which supports the value of the token as a productive asset used to move value much as a railcar is used to move freight.

Because anonymous crypto fuels crime - never mind that it burns fuel - it should, and I believe will, be banned internationally. But criminals' tools are productive assets, much as we may not like the product.