I will keep it real with you.

The reason they are pissed is that you should of known better
You have a large following for someone in the crypto world.
You have been in this space long enough to be able to explain what bitcoin, ethereum, dash, monero are and at least be able to give a half ass but good enough explanation of each one...so to the people who have a brain its pretty clear that you knew that bitconnect was a scam...maybe not right away but at one point it clicked for you but the price going up blinded you from what your actions could be doing....

That's why a lot of people do not respect you, you KNEW bitconnect was a scam at one point or another but continued to collect referrals and gains from the price increase.

Now, personally, I do NOT feel bad for the people who lost their money...because "some guy on YouTube told me to" is not fucking investment advice so shame on them for investing because you made bitconnect videos...

Like you said, you need to build your reputation back up, might not be the smartest thing to admit what you were doing but maybe taking some time off of here would be the best thing... Hodgetwins and others just joined and it looks bad for them to be associated with you right now. Its for the best for steemit... You are not in a position to complain about the downvotes with your net worth...a real class act would be if you REFUSE to get upvoted and upvote the people who comment legit shit and actually spark some real conversations.

I am sure you have a lot to offer more than referral links man..your reputation is everything, you don't want to be opening a company in 10 years and have this bite you in the ass...