So on the surface the marketing seemed deceptive but the massive returns were always paid on time so there was no real fraud perpetrated, especially considering 'all' cryptos are non-deliberate ponzis. The bitconnect system generated the company profits which they could use to invest and generate more income and coin growth. Many legitimate stocks end up at almost zero value due to people selling and companies failing but that doesn't make them a ponzi. On the other hand, bitconnect generated lots of income from the lending rates and so to call them a ponzi (when nearly all cryptos are already non-deliberate ponzis) is a bit far-fetched. They found a system which allowed them to grow their coin value while still generating huge profits (almost no other coin generates profits like that). The competition didn't help, but bitconnect was the first and should have been able to carry on if it wasn't for the bad press and legal issues.
You still haven't explained how those legal issues in a couple of states prevented them from refunding all victims the actual USD value of their deposits, if they we're in such a good financial position?
The ponzi collapsed just like every other ponzi. Scammers realized that there isn't enough new cashflow to keep it going and shut it off. They are brazen enough to try another round with the X. Somehow magically there are no "legal issues" with that, right?
Bitconnect was only about cryptocurrency and the USD was just denoting the value of the BCC coins they would receive when they got around to converting them to BCC (you didn't have to convert the interest immediately as it was left in the lending wallet). Crypto companies can never deal in fiat currency without a lot more regulations and KYC etc.
Anyway, the truth is there are many of these types of websites coming out now with lending platforms. I suppose most don't allow US in the ICOs any more (bitconnectX excludes USA too).