Business as usual.
I highly suggest you do a little more research. This is a transfer of wealth on scale that I haven't seen in my lifetime.
I'm not a wealthy elite. I'm getting wealthier.
I do have money in cryptocurrency, just to be clear. Only because I expect to be able to sell it for a higher value to a greater fool down the line (and have no misconceptions about what it is and the risks involved).
Difficult to steal or confiscate.
Confidence of transaction completion in a low trust environment.
I'm sure there are more but those are three off the top of my head.
Why would ycombinator backed REQ try to replace Paypal with crypto technology if there wasn't fundamental value in the tech?
They don't just invest in anyone, they do due diligence, why would they conclude this is even a viable risk taking opportunity if it was easy to see there is no utility in the technology?