> When it first emerged, many people questioned it's (sic) basic premise

As they did Charles Ponzi's international reply coupons.

> That is all kind of the same vibe as Bitcoin

You mean the creator(s) who went to great lengths to hide their identities (that's reassuring), or do you mean the various ripoff artists, fraudsters, imprisoned scammers etc.?

> It has securely held Billions of USD equivalents in value for years.

So did tech stocks in 1999...so did subprime mortgages in 2007...