Why did the developers even leave open the option of this happening?
(a) they are stupid?
(b)they were trying to scam?
What options have I missed?
(c)they built a platform which is based on the belief in the wisdom of the crowd, meaning, in an ideal world, the buyers would determine the price by their actions, and they decided to apply this belief in the ICO as well.
aka: plausible deniability
"It wasn't our fault! It was everyone else, acting exactly as we secretly knew they would, while publicly showing faith that they wouldn't! muahahahahahaha!!!!"
*goes off to swim in big pile of cash*
