This is an open discussion, so your thoughts more than welcome.

Here is what i think that happened:

"A few people with a lot of money, a few brilliant ideas and the will to fuck everyone up in order to make loads more money came up with a great idea: let's create digital money, some bullshit about fighting banks, some japanese guy that doesn't really exist, silkroad for a bit.
Let's give this Bitcoin thing value by pumping the hell out of it, and let it drop on  a bunch of unwanted childs that dream of getting rich with this shit.
In the Meantime we will have an organized ring of scammers ( Karpelles, cryptorush, mintpal.. etc etc .. ) that will make us even richer.
We will also have another organized ring of scammers/devs that will create new coins so we can pump and dump the hell out of them to make even more and more money.
Once this shit gets regulated we will just leave with more billions and see ya"

In a project in which so much money is handled, there could have been the possibility that someone would plan that, but taking into account the many years that had to pass so that the capital really began to be interested in bitcoin, it would undoubtedly have been a disappointing wait, without guarantees of success.

In addition, I believe that cryptocurrencies have proven to have a real usefulness to facilitate things in real life, so if someone plans to leave with the money collected so far, the cryptocurrencies would continue their evolution in an organic way because they are here to stay and improve the current economy.