I can agree with most of what you're saying, but there is a sticking point that I take issue with.

> Now they may have sold unregistered securities, but that's very different compared to downright theft (like Genesis or SBF or so many others did).

I mean, is it? They compared it directly to a bank account [1], and mentioned FDIC insurance for GUSD [2]. They might have not meant for my money to be stolen, but I am quite confident that they were playing fast and loose with terms in order for me to believe that there was lower risk in this than there actually was. There's actually a word for "purposefully making someone believe something that's not true", and it's called "lying", and if they're lying then I kind of have to assume some nefarious intent.

That said, I can broadly agree that maybe they're just morons? I'm probably an idiot too, but it's a little different for a software engineer without any financial training vs. two adults trying to start "legitimate" crypto exchange without doing the proper due diligence to make sure their partners are also legitimate?

[1] https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1lMbFqWIAAcpKc?format=jpg&name=... [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20211201224824/https://www.gemin...