CDO at least had an underlying asset. They went wrong because they became a tool to game the rating agencies. Crypto is something else, it's like a way to circumvent any common sense and past learning about securities, and let the common person buy in to a mlm and / or ponzi scheme with some confusing words to make it sound legit.
How is bitcoin more ponzi than any other asset? Less demand will decrease its value, more demand will increase. The supply is predictable so no surprises here.
Bitcoin has a value because people believe it has a value, exactly like the US dollar. No inherent value for either. In contract to the US dollar, at least formally, no one can create more out of thin air, unlike the US dollar, it has an integrated, digital and remote exchange mechanism guaranteed to work (if implemented correctly).
We can have an open discussion regrading other cryptocurrencies, but even there, their value exists because it's being assigned to them. The problem is the expectations and the lies being told by the main stakeholder of that blockchain and that's a different story and not intrinsic at all
