Trove Investors Furious After Team Keeps $9M and Token Tanks

Vocal critics within the Trove Markets community on X are in uproar again after the team announced it will keep most of the investor funds it had raised to build on Hyperliquid and instead use them to build on Solana. 

Trove had raised over $11.5 million for a token sale tied to its integration on Hyperliquid, but announced on Friday, just days before its token generation event, that it will pivot to building on Solana.

One of Trove’s builders, “Unwise,” later blamed the pivot on a liquidity partner withdrawing 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens needed for the Hyperliquid integration, with dozens of Trove investors demanding refunds since the sudden change in direction.

“From the total raise, we will retain $9,397,403 to continue building a perp DEX on Solana,” Trove said on Monday, explaining that it is the “only path that keeps Trove alive as a real product.”

Trove said it has spent some of those funds, or plans to spend those funds, on a developer team for frontend and backend infrastructure, a chief technology officer, an advisory team, and marketing and operating expenses.

However, Trove said over $2.44 million was refunded to investors “as part of cleaning up participation and protecting distribution integrity,” while another $100,000 will be refunded to participants in the initial coin offering.

“How can you build a perp dex went you can’t even do an ICO competently. Biggest scam in crypto ATM,” one of the critics said on X.

TROVE token sinks 95% after TGE

Frustrations intensified after its newly launched TROVE token fell more than 95% to $0.0008 just ten minutes after launching, shaving its market cap from $20 million to below $1 million, DEXScreener data shows.

Data from blockchain analytics platform Bubblemaps shows one entity received 12% of the token supply via 80 fresh wallets funded from non-custodial crypto exchange ChangeHero.

Bubblemaps, however, found no evidence linking the clusters to the Trove team.

Trove assures they’re in it for the long haul

Despite the drama, Trove assured the community that they “are not going anywhere.”

“Trove is not disappearing. We are not “taking the money and running.” We are still building,” the team said, stating that they’re “going to earn trust back through execution.”

Related: 80% of hacked crypto projects never ‘fully recover,’ expert warns 

Cointelegraph reached out for comment but didn’t receive an immediate response.

Trove plans to focus its perps trading experience on collectibles such as Pokémon cards and Counter-Strike 2 skins — a market that crypto asset manager Bitwise predicted in September could grow into a $21.4  billion industry.

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