"Free money, no strings attached!" Did they knowingly invite scammers? Probably not. Someone showed up talking about free money with no strings attached and th

"Free money, no strings attached!" Did they knowingly invite scammers? Probably not. Someone showed up talking about free money with no strings attached and they decided not to question it. Every scam is a situation where people want to believe it isn't a scam - otherwise they wouldn't get off the ground. There's a story that doesn't really feel right, but you don't want to investigate it because you want to believe the upside. "We'll give you 8% interest at a time when banks are giving you 0% and mortgages are 3%!" That was one of FTX's offerings. If you start asking questions, it becomes clear that's impossible to offer. Where's the money coming from to pay that interest? New depositors? So it's a ponzi scheme. Putting the deposits in crypto...which is always going up...because of new buyers of crypto being willing to pay ever more? So it's a ponzi scheme. Anything where you're not No, they didn't knowingly invite scammers, but they also didn't want to ask questions because here's a company willing to pour huge amounts of money from global sources into a small economy. Even if you tax them at such a low rate, you're essentially getting to tax worldwide economic activity and keep that money for your small country. You don't want to question how their business model works. Crypto has been soaring for years and you've met the people and they're really nice to you and they're offering you a way to become the most beloved politician your country has ever seen - MONEY! If you're a politician, money is so valuable to you - especially if you can get it without taxing your residents. Money lets you give generous raises to all your public employees. Money lets you improve schools and roads. Whatever people are looking for, someone else's money can buy. Scams work because people don't want to ask the right questions. They might even know what the right questions are, but no one wants to listen to the nay-sayer when times are good. Meme stocks? They only work so long as there are new people willing to keep paying inflated prices for something worth very little. People literally know that some will be left holding the bag at the end. But people often don't want to question things. Scams let you imagine your amazing future life, what you can do with all that money, and all the happiness you'll have. "Shut up brain! No one asked you whether this seemed plausible! Now keep that fantasy dopamine coming!"