Agree with you on this. Stocks are not Ponzi schemes, as the value is in the underlying company, and there is an actual asset there. To be critical, your claim that Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme and my claim that the US dollar is a Ponzi scheme are not accurate, either. For Bitcoin, investors are not being paid with other people's money. They are paying more for an actual asset, albeit a digital asset. An asset with a finite supply. Celsius was a Ponzi scheme, unfortunately for me. Miners contribute energy to generate more bitcoin, and thus they have skin in the game. They aren't creating BTC out of thin air.
Conversely, the US does create money out of thin air. I'd argue that the US dollar is the biggest scam the world has seen. The US managed to establish the dollar as the world reserve currency in 1944, when it was backed by gold. The world committed to the currency and for ~25 years, all was well and good. But, then the US started printing more money than they had gold to cover and in 1971, you could no longer claim gold in exchange for currency. There is nothing behind the US dollar. Nothing other than a promise from our government that is adding debt at a ridiculous rate. It's appropriate that Trump is going into office, this could be his biggest bankruptcy ever.