One of the first significant ICOs was made by the famous Ethereum (see Chapter 3, Ethereum and Smart Contracts). The founder, Vitalik Buterin, and his team issued between July 22, 2014, and September 2, 2014, about 60 million Ether (the new cryptocoin or token) in exchange for 31,500 Bitcoin, equivalent at the time to $18.4 million.
With this money, they could design and code the future Ethereum platform, which was launched on July 30, 2015. The founders motivated the investors that this platform would allow people to build decentralized applications upon it. Investors were seduced and paid in Bitcoin in exchange for Ether, the currency that would later be used as the fuel for building applications through the platform. Back then, with 1 Bitcoin, you could purchase about 1,900 Ether, which as of June 19, 2019, is valued...