It’s not so much shady as 1) crypto BS incorporated into it and 2) the CEO is homophobic IIRC.

The “crypto BS” also encompasses running a protection racket whereby Brave man-in-the-middles website ads to replace them with its own, then shakes down the website owners to buy into said crypto BS if they want their lost revenue back.

That counts as shady in my book: an end-user has every right to control what their computer (their property) does, but the third-party interference for the third-party’s benefit crosses the line.