I agree that brokerages have done similar lately, with massive ad campaigns targeting retail traders, gamifying their apps, and generally obfuscating the risks

I agree that brokerages have done similar lately, with massive ad campaigns targeting retail traders, gamifying their apps, and generally obfuscating the risks involved to less-informed individuals. And as you mention in the second part, it is a very difficult and tricky balance between protecting retail traders while preventing them access to instruments that the wealthy can use to further increase wealth. As an example, it used to be that USA-based customers could leverage trade (short trade or margin leverage long trade) on crypto exchanges, for example Kraken. However, due to regulatory pressure, Kraken now requires registering as an Eligible Contract Participant in order to margin/leverage trade - the key requirement being proof of $10M in discretionary assets. On one hand, this is probably a net "good" - short trading or leveraged long trades are _extremely_ risky, with the former having infinite loss potential and the latter resulting in margin calls or a greater loss than the account is worth (i.e. you're in debt to the exchange). I have little doubt that retail traders would've lost more money were this restriction not in place. On the other hand, this reeks of "you must be this rich to enter; peons need not apply". A wealthy person can 66