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Trove Markets has faced significant scrutiny after confirming its decision to retain approximately $9.4 million from a token sale that was initially promoted around a planned integration with Hyperliquid, despite shifting its perps DEX to Solana just days prior to the token launch.
This resulted in the newly introduced TROVE token plummeting by over 95% just minutes after trading commenced.
TROVE debuted with an anticipated market capitalization of around $20 million, but within ten minutes of its launch, the token fell to about $0.0008, reducing its valuation to below $2 million, according to DEXScreener data.
Source: DEXScreener
At the time of this report, TROVE is trading close to $0.000703, with a market cap of approximately $703,000.
The abrupt decline followed mounting dissatisfaction from contributors who expressed that the project had altered its direction too late in the fundraising process.
Liquidity Withdrawal Sparks Trove’s Transition From Hyperliquid to Solana
Trove had secured over $11.5 million through a public token sale linked to the development of a perpetual decentralized exchange utilizing Hyperliquid’s infrastructure.
However, just days before the token generation event, the team revealed it would pivot to Solana instead.
This change immediately raised concerns regarding whether the funds raised for the Hyperliquid project should be reimbursed.
Instead, Trove announced it would keep $9,397,403 to continue development on Solana, stating that this was the only feasible option to sustain the product.
According to one of Trove’s developers, known as Unwise, the sudden shift was due to the withdrawal of a key liquidity partner, who had previously backed the Hyperliquid approach with a position of about 500,000 HYPE tokens.
We’re pivoting Trove to Solana.
After recent sentiments surrounding Trove, the liquidity partner that had been supporting our Hyperliquid path decided to unwind their 500k $HYPE position. That was their choice, and we fully respect it.
This alters our constraints: we’re no longer…— unwise (@unwisecap) January 18, 2026
With that support withdrawn, the team indicated it no longer made sense to continue on Hyperliquid and chose to rebuild the perps exchange on Solana from the ground up.
Trove explained that this decision fundamentally changed its limitations and necessitated a reset rather than proceeding with what it described as an uncertain framework.
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Trove acknowledged on X that its management of the ICO and subsequent actions led to confusion, frustration, and a breakdown of trust.
https://t.co/sc8b59sjYE
— TROVE (@TroveMarkets) January 19, 2026
Trove mentioned it had already refunded approximately $2.44 million as part of its efforts to rectify participation and maintain distribution integrity, with an additional $100,000 set to be automatically refunded to ICO participants.
The remaining funds, it stated, have been utilized or allocated for developer salaries, frontend and backend infrastructure, a chief technology officer, advisory services, marketing, and operational expenses.
Trove Faces Pressure as Community Questions Fundraising Practices
Despite these clarifications, critics have continued to challenge the management of the fundraising efforts.
On X, some users accused the project of violating fundraising expectations, contending that funds raised for Hyperliquid should not be redirected following a last-minute pivot.
refund the people now!!!
you raised money to build on hyperliquid!
Return the funds and raise on solana if you think that’s what your community truly desires— HYPEconomist (@HYPEconomist) January 18, 2026
Others took it further, demanding refunds, threatening legal action, or claiming the situation could lead to lawsuits.
Further on-chain analysis added to the controversy, as data shared by Bubblemap indicated that a single entity appeared to control approximately 12% of the TROVE supply, distributed across numerous new wallets funded through the same exchange and clustered within narrow timeframes.
2/ $TROVE launched earlier today and quickly dropped -90%
• The presale was at $20M FDV
• It now trades around $2M FDV https://t.co/HHABuaSnz7 pic.twitter.com/2FhDwew2IX— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) January 19, 2026
Bubblemap stated it found no direct evidence linking those wallets to the Trove team but noted that the pattern raised questions about presale conduct.
The turbulence follows an already tumultuous ICO process earlier in January.
Trove initially announced the sale had surpassed $11.5 million, significantly exceeding its $2.5 million target, and promised pro-rata refunds. It then briefly declared a five-day extension, only to reverse that decision hours later, citing an error.
The post Trove Shocks Investors: $9.4M ICO Funds Retained, Token Crashes 95% After Solana Pivot appeared first on Cryptonews.
