In 1986, Microsoft went public at $21 a share, raising about $60M. Today, a Microsoft share is up 147,000%, including stock splits. Modern-day startups including Uber & Airbnb are valued at 10s of billions without selling a single share in public markets.https://www.wsj.com/articles/old-money-billionaires-are-chasing-new-tech-riches-1533294003 …
I suspect this is one force behind the ICO craze. People wanted to participate in the value generation of tech investing, now that it's not available in public markets. They (foolishly) see ICOs as the new version of IPOs.