no crowdfund, no ICO, no premine, no instamine :D
Steem is facing growth problem because of the quick early adoption and slow business development regarding investors and the pay-for-attention economy, advertising economy, so we lack liquidity for sure.
There re lot of people out there working on it though, trying to find solutions and keep debating & improving the model everyday, so i guess it's just a matter of time to find out the good path to take for mass adoption