A common theme with Ponzi schemes is that the people at the beginning who created the scheme (or who invested in it earliest) benefit greatly by future people buying into the scheme.

Bitcoin started with its value essentially at nothing, and the early "investors" were able to create tons of it out of thin air.

Provided they held onto that Bitcoin, the "value" of the "currency" only increased as more and more people bought into the notion that it had value.

You can see how this would heavily incentivize early investors/miners/buyers to perpetuate the scheme.

Many early "investors" in Bitcoin made millions of dollars off of their gambles. I personally know quite a few of those people.

I hate to pull the wool away from your eyes, but that's not a deflationary, stable currency. That's a Ponzi scheme.

"A common theme with Ponzi schemes is that the people at the beginning who created the scheme (or who invested in it earliest) benefit greatly by future people buying into the scheme."

You can make this argument for any created product, especially any currency.

"out of thin air"

Yes. That is currently how most currencies work.

Except the creator(s) have not cashed out even when they hit $20 billion USD. What are they waiting for? $200 billion USD?

Even though the original creators haven't cashed out, there are many other early adopters who have

We don't even know if the creator is alive