"For what its worth, customers' fund are not "business assets". He had no legal right to spend that money.
Now, he may have thought he could use it to float some funds, and put them back, and no one would be any wiser, but that's definitely illegal."
This is true, and the comparison with banks fractional reserve isn't 1:1
The banks aren't taking your money to pay their bills, they're using your money along a legally defined path of creating and selling investment products with the government in a well-defined position to protect your savings as a guarantor.
I suspect that the Dogecoin business could have leveraged customer deposits in investment products similarly, but would likely require an insane amount of bureaucracy and i-dotting before they could do it.
This is true, and the comparison with banks fractional reserve isn't 1:1
The banks aren't taking your money to pay their bills, they're using your money along a legally defined path of creating and selling investment products with the government in a well-defined position to protect your savings as a guarantor.
I suspect that the Dogecoin business could have leveraged customer deposits in investment products similarly, but would likely require an insane amount of bureaucracy and i-dotting before they could do it.