I didn't read the thread. I am just responding to the Subject title quoted above in bold text. I am NOT accusing anyone of anything. I am speaking hypothetically below.

The problem with ICOs is the developers can take out a loan, buy the ICO from themselves, thus creating the illusion that they raised more money than they did. But of course they need to pay the loan back. So tracking the BTC raised from an ICO is apparently a necessary condition for ICOs, but it still doesn't resolve the issues below.

Buying the ICO from themselves allows manipulation:

1. They own a large % of the supply which they can withhold from the float to drive the price up. They use this as margin so they can take out options contracts to apply highly leveraged price manipulation.

2. If this buying is visible during the ICO process, this can drive up demand for the ICO.

3. Use this control over the float to buy from themselves, jacking up the exchange price.