Trove faced intense criticism after withholding $9 million in ICO Capital , with its new Token , TGE, plummeting 95%. (Image: X)
Trove wants to retain the majority of the ICO Capital .
Trove Markets is facing increasingly harsh criticism from the investment community after the project team decided to retain most of the ICO Capital , following a last-minute strategic shift that caused the newly launched Token to lose almost all its value.
How to destroy trust in a crypto launch
— StarPlatinum (@StarPlatinum_) January 19, 2026
Trove edition:
- launches as a perp DEX for illiquid assets
- Pokémon cards, CS2, watches, RWAs
- leverage up to 5–10x
- interesting idea, niche market, ok
- built first on Hyperliquid
- team fully anonymous from day one
late 2025
-… pic.twitter.com/zr7qNyE2Cb
Two days ago, Trove unexpectedly announced a shift in its development of a decentralized Derivative exchange (perpetual DEX) from Hyperliquid to Solana – just days before its Token launch event (TGE). This decision immediately met with fierce backlash from early investors who had Capital based on the expectation that Trove would build a product integrated with the Hyperliquid ecosystem.
According to the project, Trove raised over $11.5 million through an ICO Token Sale directly related to its integration plan with Hyperliquid, far exceeding its initial goal of $2.5 million and equivalent to oversubscribing by more than 460%. However, by the end of last week, the project announced it was abandoning this direction and shifting to Solana , leading many investors to believe the funds were raised based on a premise that no longer exists.
A member of Trove, known by the alias Unwise, stated that the decision to redirect XEM from a liquidation partner withdrawing 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) Token , a requirement for completing the HIP-3 integration. The partner's identity remains undisclosed, and according to some industry sources, it is not a core strategic partner of Hyperliquid, raising questions about Trove's reliance on external agreements.
We're pivoting Trove to Solana.
— unwise (@unwisecap) January 18, 2026
After recent sentiment around Trove, the liquidity partner that had been supporting our Hyperliquid path chose to unwind their 500k $HYPE position. That was their decision and we fully respect it.
This changes our constraints: we're no longer…
This development triggered a wave of refund requests, alleging that the project altered its Capital conditions after the ICO was nearly complete. In yesterday's announcement, Trove confirmed it will retain $9.3 million from the total Capital raised to continue developing its perp DEX on Solana.
"This is the only way for Trove to survive as a product," the project states, while acknowledging that it is impossible to reverse all the costs incurred.
Trove stated that the retained funds will be allocated to the frontend and backend development teams, CTO, advisors, and marketing and operational costs. The project also confirmed that it has repaid over $2.44 million to investors and pledged an additional $100,000 to those who participated in the initial ICO.
Pressure continued to mount as blockchain data revealed that wallets associated with Trove had sold off large quantities of HYPE Token , the asset XEM fundamental to the Hyperliquid platform. Estimates suggest the total value of HYPE sold within 24 hours reached $10 million, raising suspicions that the project liquidated its core assets just before announcing its move to Solana.
Additionally, blockchain investigator ZachXBT has publicly questioned a transaction in which $45,000 from Trove's angel Capital round was transferred via the bridge and sent directly to an address labeled as a deposit wallet for an online betting platform. Trove has yet to respond to this transaction.
Want to explain to the community why your team bridged $45K from the Trove Angel Round raised on Jan 11 and deposited it directly into a casino deposit address?
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt)January 17, 2026
Village address
7nRNzRX2WQ3WxV3eV6gDeJeWTApqefuXNXQRZ1xEh1eh
Destination address… pic.twitter.com/6sdjiLo8GW
Suspicions arise that a Vietnamese team is behind this.
Alongside the controversies surrounding funding, Trove also faces a wave of questions about the identity and location of its project team, as the entire development crew remains anonymous.
Is the Trove team straight out of Vietnam?
— Step (@Step_Bitcoin) January 20, 2026
A buddy just DM'd me this first screenshot showing Trove's X account geolocated in Vietnam.
Second pic is the Polymarket insider trading leaderboard—top 2 spots are straight Vietnamese names, and they've already renamed their handles… pic.twitter.com/2snKwMFKZg
Some investors questioned whether Trove was operated from Vietnam , citing screenshots showing the project's X account was previously located in Vietnam, as well as data from Polymarket's trading leaderboard, where the top two accounts bore Vietnamese names before being rebranded.
TROVE was disastrous right after TGE.
The pressure on confidence quickly reflected in the market. Data from DEXScreener showed that the TROVE Token dropped more than 95% in just 10 minutes after the TGE, falling to around $0.0008, dragging its market Capital from approximately $20 million to below $1 million.
TROVE price fluctuations since TGE, screenshot from DEX Screener at 11:10 AM on January 20, 2026
According to on-chain data from Bubblemaps, a single entity received approximately 12% of the total Token supply through 80 newly Capital wallets from the decentralized exchange ChangeHero. Bubblemaps stated that it has not found any evidence linking these wallets to the Trove team, but the distribution structure continues to raise suspicions within the community.
2/$TROVE launched earlier today and quickly dropped -90%
— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) January 19, 2026
• The presale was at $20M FDV
• It trades now around $2M FDV https://t.co/HHABuaSnz7 pic.twitter.com/2FhDwew2IX
Some users described their investment experience with Trove as a loss of both financial and mental health. Another investor described Trove as one of the most severely disappointing ICOs they had ever participated in, claiming the project constantly changed the rules after raising Capital. This person accused Trove of building expectations by announcing deployment on HyperEVM, amplifying interest through testnet activities, before proceeding with a preferential angel Capital round, while its influencer marketing activities were not clearly disclosed.
In response to the negative reaction, Trove stated that it had not disappeared and denied the accusation of absconding with the money. “Trove is still being built,” the team said, emphasizing that they would seek to regain trust through product rollout.
According to the updated plan, Trove will focus on developing Derivative trading around collectible assets such as Pokémon cards and Counter-Strike 2 skins, a segment that Bitwise previously predicted could grow into a $21.4 billion market.
However, amidst eroded confidence and a sharp drop in the Token shortly after listing, Trove's ability to make a successful comeback on Solana remains a big question mark.
Coin68 compilation
