Many people bought in before launch when they couldn't see the code. On top of it, GAW didn't warn them that things weren't going to be 100% ready at launch and that the launch was actually an unmarked open Beta instead of a fully-finished product. The hype made it sound like everything was going to be at least basically functional within a month of launch and that there were real partners backing the coin. Nobody knew it was all fake and just assumed that they just didn't know all the details and that there would be clear info at launch (which is pretty common when a site is being released, actually).

The rage from GAW fans when they saw that they were misled was very real which led to the heavy censorship GAW is infamous for.  If not angry, they were confused and kept hoping they hadn't been hoodwinked and that it was just a "rough launch". The first month was full of dealing with the fallout from the bad launch. Even worse, a month or two after launch the TOS changed to absolve GAW of any responsibility in the coin and GAW didn't warn anyone that they changed it. Anyone who didn't cut and run within the first month pretty much was screwed.