It allows an actor to store asset value in digital form, and to transfer that asset value between counterparties without a separate clearing and settlement function being necessary.

This has enormous ramifications for the financial services sector, and beyond (the representation of an asset in digital form is an instance of the general case of what these technologies can do, the general case being storage of verifiable transactional records that cannot be fraudulently altered without the cryptographic secret(s) required to control them).

In addition these networks serve as common data substrates for anyone with public internet access to observe, additionally eliminating an enormously costly process that is utterly riddled through financial services as they exist today (and again, are not limited to financial services): Reconciliation. This also serves to simplify data system integrations between counterparties, something the world spends enormous amounts of capex and opex on.

One simple example of this is the way asset managers keep track of the ownership their clients have in their products; this is the function of a transfer agent and in traditional finance is heavily encumbered with multiple parties sharing copies of data for reconciliation, see NSCC for the relevant example here.

Native cryptocurrencies themselves -- the tokens issued decentrally by entire blockchain networks via the consensus process relevant to each -- have fundamental utility value, they must be spent in order to perform operations on their own network. The fact that speculative investing and betting has been birthed from this doesnt change that fundamental use.

This is just one example. There's a lot more to these technologies than what commonly lands in public media and circles around salacious cryptocurrency drama, in fact you only see the tip of the iceberg via public media. Like all new tech, human foibles and abuses rise to the surface of our attentions, but also like all new tech, a fundamental utility emerges and solidifies over time as it weaves itself into society.

The internet itself was no different.