It's really unfortunate so many VC's and people in the tech industry lent credibility to such naked fraud. It made (and continues to make) regulation politically untenable. One of our political parties _continues_ to insist the crypto industry is "innovation!" and it'd be a mistake to stifle such incredible innovation. It's all bs.

I'm sorry you fell victim to this. It's a shame the regulators, meant to protect consumers from this exact thing, weren't able to do their jobs. Don't take it as a personal failure. This was systemic, and you were served up by lots of deeply monied interests.