Tales from the Crypt: the burial of El Salvador?

I have never understood crypto-currency, which seems to me to be fake money in search of real money, or a form of barter in which, say 'Bitcoin' takes the place of a swap: my tv for your fridge.

El Salvador, where the 'national' currency is the US Dollar, was the first state in the world to add Bitcoin as an alternative currency, they even have Bitcoin ATM's.

Its President, Nayib Bukele is, according to some, the most popular head of state in the world, with 87% approval ratings.

By origin the family are Palestinian Christians, although his father converted to Islam later in life -and let's face it, there are a lot of Crypts in Jerusalem.

He has presided over a decline in murders in El Salvador -some say by doing backroom deals with MS-13 and the 18th St Gang- but his economic policies have led to such a crisis that El Salvador has now reached a deal with China which is going to buy $21 Billion of its foreign debt, with strings attached. Quite how an orientation toward China and away from the US is going to work I dont know -Bukele met Trump whereas Biden I believe, has refused to meet the guy. What China does or does not have in store in El Salvador I don't know, but the article is here-
China circles El Salvador’s economy as country edges toward crypto plunge | Bitcoin | The Guardian

I don't understand this Bitcoin thing, or the FTX exchange that was supposed to bring Crypto-currencies into the mainstream -as Arwa Mahdawi (also of Palestinian origin) writes today-

"...my bank apparently does more due diligence when I buy a sofa than Silicon Valley’s most high-profile investors appear to have done before giving billions of dollars to a scruffy twentysomething who liked to nap on beanbags."
and then
"Why on earth did some of the supposedly smartest minds in venture capital give Bankman-Fried so much money and provide so little oversight? Two reasons, I think. The first is that nobody understood what on earth the guy was talking about and decided that that meant he was a genius. Secondly, they just liked his vibe."
Why were so many smart people so dumb about FTX? Did they seriously just like Sam Bankman-Fried’s ‘vibe’? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

My guess is that if I printed money from the Bank of Stavros, it wouldn't get me a burger and fries in McDonalds, and I don't suppose Grooby will take as a sub either, so I don't really get how crypto-currencies can evolve into mainstream finance.

But it does look like El Salvador may become a Crypto-State, or maybe just a Crypt, where daft ideas -and I regret to say- its victims, are buried.

That's a lot of immigrants from a failed state heading North to, hmmm...Alaska?