For me, it seems like a little bit of both. I see it more like stocks but the "stocks" have their own value and can be traded directly for other "stocks"(coins/tokens) without first going to fiat then back to "stocks" again.
Basically like stocks you can trade directly and some companies and places accept these ''stocks" since they can sell them when they please or even trade them again to anyone else willing to take bitcoin or crypto as payment options.