Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is a bank a ponzi scheme if its assets don't exist also? Like if a bank has $10B in customer deposits and one of their armored truck drivers escapes across the border with $2B, then some customers can't be paid back when they try to withdraw, does that make it a ponzi?
If you can't be paid at all it's not a Ponzi. The point is to rely on newer funds to pay the older requests.
Not just to pay old requests. To pay revenue sharing / dividends / interest to shareholders. A Ponzi scheme is repurposing inflows to appear as revenue to a fake business.