The way I see it, crypto evolved into a sort of postmodern pyramid scheme. The industry lured investors in with a combination of technobabble and libertarian derp; it used some of that cash flow to buy the illusion of respectability, which brought in even more investors. And for a while, even as the risks multiplied, it became, in effect, too big to regulate… [This may be] a moment in which effective regulation has become politically possible… before crypto stops being a mere casino and becomes a threat to financial stability [All bolding mine — JMN].
(Paul Krugman, “Crypto Is Crashing. Where Were the Regulators?” NYTimes, 7-11-22)
I would suggest investors are “lured” and not “lured in,” but that’s a matter of style. The ‘in’ does add realized force to the bait-taking. Krugman’s good at dropping nuggets of the patois du jour in his columns. Hello, derp: “speech or action that’s foolish or stupid.” There’s ever a fresh word for stale states. Poaching the gaming term ‘casino’ for application to finance registers a tick on the rhetoric scale.
Crypto currency seems more of an attitude than a substance, something like an arcane, dark matter floating in the blockchain nebula. Language-wise, the term ‘crypto’ is magnetized for me because of its connection to ‘cryptic.’ The discovery of ‘cryptic coloration’ in high school biology, and of ‘lapidary’ somewhere else (Baudelaire?), gave me two favored words at an early stage in the quest for crypto literacy.
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.
EthicalDative 
‘Crypto Casino’ and ‘Derp’
I would suggest investors are “lured” and not “lured in,” but that’s a matter of style. The ‘in’ does add realized force to the bait-taking. Krugman’s good at dropping nuggets of the patois du jour in his columns. Hello, derp: “speech or action that’s foolish or stupid.” There’s ever a fresh word for stale states. Poaching the gaming term ‘casino’ for application to finance registers a tick on the rhetoric scale.
Crypto currency seems more of an attitude than a substance, something like an arcane, dark matter floating in the blockchain nebula. Language-wise, the term ‘crypto’ is magnetized for me because of its connection to ‘cryptic.’ The discovery of ‘cryptic coloration’ in high school biology, and of ‘lapidary’ somewhere else (Baudelaire?), gave me two favored words at an early stage in the quest for crypto literacy.
(c) 2022 JMN — EthicalDative. All rights reserved
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About JMN
I live in Texas and devote much of my time to easel painting on an amateur basis. I stream a lot of music, mostly jazz, throughout the day. I like to read and memorize poetry.