Good catch. I’m not familiar with the original Ponzi scheme, but as far as I know Madoff was targeting rich people. The crypto scheme has reached the gambling masses at scale
Where Bitcoin really innovates in the Ponzi-space is decentralization. You could arrest Madoff and put an end to his scam, there is no easy way to shut down Bitcoin. It is like HYDRA.
Shutdown exchanges in the US, South Korea, China and Japan and you'll see how quickly everything explodes. Just the mere suggestion that South Korea was about to do this tanked the market.