If they lost their fortunes through Bitcoin, that means they sold their Bitcoin for less than they bought it, that's literally the only way they could have lost money. And they would have had to have held it for a fairly short time for that to happen given the historical price of Bitcoin.

If I pull all the money out of my 401k early and have to pay enough of a penalty that I lose money, does that mean 401k's are a scam? Other than the obvious part about them shifting the retirement burden onto individuals and killing pensions, of course.