Bitcoin/crypto was designed with express intent of allowing financial transactions to be safe and trustworthy without a central broker (ie a bank). Since the value of a coin was essentially arbitrary, speculators with big graphics cards drove the price up leading a bubble which has attracted the sharks and now the whales. I haven't seen any major breakthroughs in the technology, but there has been innovation in the usage of coins from simple currency to investment securities. Arguably we've come full circle and Bitcoin is now the opposite of what it intended but that doesn't mean it isn't innovation. Frisbees used to be pie plates.