I suspect that a good chunk of the crypto projects are simply money laundering fronts. Buy crypto with undocumented cash, create ICO, buy into it with your own undocumented crypto, and take the cash from the ICO as something the IRS believes you have the legitimate right to spend.

I have no proof of this, of course, but it's an obvious money laundering route. Costs are fairly minimal to generate a legitimate-sounding reason to have a bunch of crypto.