A meta reply to several of the commentors here is that we're not talking about JoeBob's Angel Investing who got lucky with his bait shack and has a few hundred thousand more than he knows what to do with to throw around. These are nominally the top tech investors in the world, along with lots of other people who should know what they are doing. Investing in a business in a KNOWN risky and volatile area calls for MORE due diligence, not less. If they didn't do it, we are certainly in the position of trying to figure out the exact distribution between stupid and evil. "Oh, poor us, we asked him to show us the books and he said 'no' and we just couldn't help but throw tens of millions of dollars at him" is bullshit. This isn't hopskotch at the local elementary school. The only even remotely sane conclusion to come to in that circumstance is not only "no", but a NO! yelled back over your shoulder as you flee as fast as your feet will take you.
This is failure so profound that your brain is having trouble wrapping itself around it and you are thinking to yourself, surely they knew what they were doing and I'm just not seeing it? No. Have more confidence in yourself and less in others of supposed authority.
This isn't an isolated incident. Theranos had no product. Many investors invest in founders instead of the idea, thinking that good founders know when to pivot. Occasionally, a founder doubles down on a bad idea and hides that they've figured out it was a bad idea from investors, but it is hard to predict if a founder will do this ahead of time.
That said, my own opinion is that anybody who invests in the crypto space is either a scammer or a rube.
A meta reply to several of the commentors here is that we're not talking about JoeBob's Angel Investing who got lucky with his bait shack and has a few hundred thousand more than he knows what to do with to throw around. These are nominally the top tech investors in the world, along with lots of other people who should know what they are doing. Investing in a business in a KNOWN risky and volatile area calls for MORE due diligence, not less. If they didn't do it, we are certainly in the position of trying to figure out the exact distribution between stupid and evil. "Oh, poor us, we asked him to show us the books and he said 'no' and we just couldn't help but throw tens of millions of dollars at him" is bullshit. This isn't hopskotch at the local elementary school. The only even remotely sane conclusion to come to in that circumstance is not only "no", but a NO! yelled back over your shoulder as you flee as fast as your feet will take you.
This is failure so profound that your brain is having trouble wrapping itself around it and you are thinking to yourself, surely they knew what they were doing and I'm just not seeing it? No. Have more confidence in yourself and less in others of supposed authority.