Everything is fake, its all a just a faith based system. It just matters that the person your exchanging goods or services with accepts what you are offering.
It is really just manipulation by others, even bitcoin is controlled heavily by the whales and miners but it is the best decentralized system we have so far.
I agree with you it all comes down to our own perspective,
Other might call it fake or whatever but it all depends on us.
And even if some says that it is a fake money then it is one of the most expensive fake money that I've known so far.
And it is capable of being used just like a regular currency so for me it is not a fake but rather brand new type of money.