But as far as the put money down thing, Avalon didn't take 1st batch orders until Jan 2013. Which filled up damn quick as did batch 2 in Feb (?) and then the full crazy happened by the third.
I think you are mixing up your dates: Avalon Batch 1 orders had to be paid either in USD for > 30 unit orders or in BTC in September 2012, when there was not even a chip designed. The actual BTC payment I can see here for my Batch 1 units is 20120924
Further batches were only payable in BTC
Batch 2 Wave 1: 20130204
Batch 2 Wave 2: 20130218/19
There are 2 people who did twist Yifu's arm and paid with a wire transfer in January 2013 (he forgot to cancel their standing order) but they only got their machines delivered in May or later, completely screwing them over. A nice bit of Soup Nazi there.