On January 20, the native token of perp-DEX Trove Markets (TROVE) plummeted by 98% just minutes after the completion of its ICO — the FDV of the coin dropped from $20 million to $110,000.
In preparation for the launch on January 19, developers of the Solana project conducted a fundraising on Hyperliquid. The team surpassed their target of $2.5 million, raising over $11.5 million.
Massive rug pull in crypto — $TROVE just got exposed hard.
Devs ran an ICO on Hyperliquid, smashed past their $2.5M target and raised over $11M. Then, without warning, they launched the token on Solana instead and kept all the funds — no refunds, nothing.
Token went live and… https://t.co/tmeI4fHFc2 pic.twitter.com/MRi5t6RSQg
— Hyperliquid Daily (@HYPERDailyTK) January 20, 2026
Following the ICO, Trove representatives announced they would retain $9.3 million to build the platform’s infrastructure. This move was seen as a red flag, and the team faced sharp criticism from the community.
Subsequently, the developers launched TROVE and within minutes executed a rug pull, seizing liquidity worth approximately $2.5 million. ICO participants did not receive refunds.
No new posts have appeared on Trove Markets’ official page on X since the token’s collapse.
Under the team’s last post, on-chain researcher ZachXBT shared a photo of a person who introduced himself as one of the project’s co-founders at the Token 2049 conference in October 2025.
For Trove victims here’s who was introducing themselves as its founder unwisecap during a side event at Token2049 in Oct 2025 pic.twitter.com/te2RzsSBtz
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) January 20, 2026
A user named Fantardio suggested filing a class action lawsuit against Trove Markets.
“My $20,000 investment […] was supposed to return $14,000 in USDC and $6,000 in TROVE. But due to the massive wipeout, I got back a total of $600,” said an affected investor.
Earlier in January, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was accused of a rug pull following the collapse of NYC Token.