If people will run scams in crypto the same as they'll run scams in tradfi - shouldn't they be regulated the same, too?

Cryptocurrency is, in many ways, especially useful for fraud. It's relatively anonymous, which makes transactions between individuals more difficult to track. It's unregulated, so there are fewer safeguards against fraud. It's complex, so scammers are able to prey on more people who don't fully understand it. And it's unprotected, in the sense that consumers usually have no recourse in the event that they are scammed.

Can traditional financial instruments (like cash, securities or commodities) be used for fraud? Absolutely. But it's not as easy.

If the atmosphere around crypto makes it easy to scam lots of people out of lots of money (which it does), then I think it's absolutely fair to make this story about crypto, if only so that otherwise-naive people who hear the news will think twice before investing in the next big scam.

It's not necessarily that the technology inherently lends itself to scams, but the culture around it absolutely does. A startlingly large percentage of the biggest players in crypto have turned out to be scams, this isn't a one-off thing.