It's a cash grab, just like 99% of the rest of the ICOs out there. They know there are lots of poorly informed, greedy greater fools trampling each other to give their money away right now, and plan to take full advantage of it.
You can wonder if that is good or bad. Well it is kind of bad but it is happening anyway and at least these guys won't just disappear with the pot overnight. I put some smallish amounts (like $100 per ICO) and in bunch of ICOs to see what would happen in the summer. At first all the negative stuff here on HN did seem to happen, now, more than half a year later, with some buy/sell actions at the right times, this only ICO portfolio is all black with a profit of over 30k. I took 50% to fiat and left the rest. The negativity is interesting on here: there are enough like me who know it's a gamble, who put experiments out with money they can miss if it is gone and who continue playing with profits only. Ofcourse we win only because your 'fools' lose, but we are on HN, you would think the people here would be in the former category. For now it is simply free money and where I live, legal and very low taxed. Besides some bad ICOs, which you can very easily recognize by the way, there are actual strong believers who fight for their company and reap the benefits. It is a bubble but not all is a fraud and ponzi in the blockchain space. Many are seeing it as a good way to run a real startup with real plans and products.
