What I don't really understand about the ideological basis for crypto and NFTs is that the number of people who are interested in it for reasons other than enrichment through speculation is vanishingly small. This of course circularily means that the value is almost entirely based on speculation.

The other aspect is that adopting these systems just increases inequality since the early adopters are massively wealthy. It doesn't work as a liberating medium. At best it works as a useful temporary measure for poorly run inflationary countries. Instead of being at the mercy of a commercial or central bank, you are at the mercy of a small range of individuals who either hold almost all of the cards or develop and thus determine the monetary policy of the coin in question.