https://unherd.com/thepost/is-crypto-just-one-big-ponzi-scheme/
This article ignores other potential benefits to crypto (that is, beyond a possible rise in price) and also ignores precious metals, which like crypto offer no interest payments or dividends but have other benefits. The article also ignores some of the possible RISKS of crypto (e.g., that the alleged security and privacy might be illusions, outright theft by an exchange, loss of a wallet or a password, etc). Metals also have risks (theft of physical metal for instance, including government confiscation, plus the added risk if one uses a third party to hold the metal).
There is nothing in life without risk; assessing risk and choosing which ones to take on are among the more important life skills.
Defining whether or not something is — or has become — a Ponzi scheme has been long forgotten; it involves working out if an investment’s underlying structure creates a negative-sum game. With regulated securities, such as stocks and bonds, investors receive a combination of interest payments, dividends, and cash flows, making these, at the very least, a zero-sum endeavour. With crypto, however, investors receive none of these, only benefiting from a potential rise in price — the so-called greater fool theory.
This disparity, among other things, has led many financial commentators to describe even the number one crypto, Bitcoin, as a negative-sum Ponzi scheme (one FT story suggested it was even ‘worse’ than that). If Bitcoin’s ecosystem collapses, funds can’t be returned to holders because its price going to zero means there’s nothing to recover. But with a Ponzi scheme, funds can be recovered and returned to investors. Following the collapse of the infamous Madoff Ponzi scheme, 14 out of 20 billion dollars initially invested have been recovered from offshore accounts.
For now, Bitcoin’s Ponzi status is irrelevant. Bankman-Fried has simply joined the increasing list of crypto’s nobility who’ve accidentally gloated about profiting from dubious financial structures. Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, infamously likened Bitcoin to a pyramid scheme, despite how his company’s primary function is cryptocurrency investments. Meanwhile, outlets in the crypto media have also embraced Ponzinomics, like CoinDesk publishing an article with a lede reading: “Yes, it’s a Ponzi scheme. But who cares?”
The only way he could "pull the rug" would be to sell his whole stash. That's about 5% of the total supply. So let's find out what would happen if he did, obviously that would create a temporary massive dip in the fiat exchange rate, if he sold everything.
But the rate would not go below $0, heck not even below $10 as there are always people waiting down there to scope up very cheap in the even a whale would sell. Also, after such a massive dip people would instantly rush to buy in, despite limited supply.
It's only 1M BTC, if sold for a few dollars that's just a few million dollars, which ain't much profit for him.
Then there's the question, what would he sell to, any fiat currency would expose him to the government who is looking for him, it would also allow the government to seize all his fiat currency, and the tax would be insane. Why anyone would wanna do that is beyond mystery.
Fine if he takes out small portions every now and then to buy himself nice things without attracting too much attention, that wouldn't affect the exchange rate and wouldn't harm anyone. I guess that's the closest thing to a rug pull we're ever gonna see.
The whole world would be alerted the second any of Satoshi's coins move, even if its just a little bit. His addresses are public and there are whalebots on twitter that monitor that sort of thing.
A lot of people believe he's dead, so any of his coins getting sent would be huge.