When you have $250,000,000 with no clear nor enforceable legal obligation to the people who gave it to you, who still needs a fully functioning platform?

Hopefully ethics will prompt most founders to make a good-faith attempt to deliver value for money, but in case anyone is tempted otherwise, bear in mind that the legal obligation may turn out to look much more clear and enforceable in court than it does on HN.

His point is that token sales aren't investments in the sense that you are talking about because that would, in his words, be securities fraud.

The token is a "currency" that people are buying into through some exchange rate to participate in a market with token denominated currency.