Federal courts are not state courts and the cases are not even kind of similar.

Doesn't matter at all what you're investing in, a ponzi is a ponzi and the dude in TX is being charged with running one. It's only cursorily related to bitcoin at all and this is the SEC which is federal and has their own laws separate from state laws.

The guy in Florida was being charged with money laundering because he sold bitcoins knowing that they would be used to purchase illegal goods. Personally I think he was as big a dirt bag as Charlie Shreem, and the case should have gone the same way. It would have too had this been federal because of Stare Decisis.

But the state judge ruled the state statute he was being charged with left the definition of money too vague for the charges to stand. Essentially he just castrated the law there.