{"id":93460,"date":"2026-01-22T20:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=93460"},"modified":"2026-01-22T20:10:37","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:10:37","slug":"trove-markets-developers-execute-rug-pull-following-ico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/trove-markets-developers-execute-rug-pull-following-ico\/","title":{"rendered":"Trove Markets Developers Execute Rug Pull Following ICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On January 20, the native token of <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/perp-dex-old-tricks-new-tech\">perp-DEX<\/a> Trove Markets (TROVE) plummeted by 98% just minutes after the completion of its <span data-descr=\"initial coin offering\" class=\"old_tooltip\">ICO<\/span> \u2014 the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/fdv-explained-what-it-is-and-how-it-moves-crypto-prices\">FDV<\/a> of the coin dropped from $20 million to $110,000.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"492\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-99e5d7620a639c3b-4317666887956857-1024x492.png\" alt=\"image\" class=\"wp-image-273863\" srcset=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-99e5d7620a639c3b-4317666887956857-1024x492.png 1024w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-99e5d7620a639c3b-4317666887956857-300x144.png 300w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-99e5d7620a639c3b-4317666887956857-768x369.png 768w, https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-99e5d7620a639c3b-4317666887956857.png 1310w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hourly chart of TROVE\/USD on Meteora exchange. Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.geckoterminal.com\/solana\/pools\/FQp67DXpaoWTrDTbRvwcgcPpL4Tv5AoLrND2QsMhQ3q2?utm_campaign=livechart-btn&#038;utm_medium=referral&#038;utm_source=coingecko\">GeckoTerminal<\/a>.\u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In preparation for the launch on January 19, developers of the Solana project <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TroveMarkets\/status\/2013340048129753283\">conducted<\/a> a fundraising on Hyperliquid. The team surpassed their target of $2.5 million, raising over $11.5 million.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Massive rug pull in crypto \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/search?q=%24TROVE&#038;src=ctag&#038;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">$TROVE<\/a> just got exposed hard.<\/p>\n<p>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 \u2014 no refunds, nothing.<\/p>\n<p>Token went live and\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tmeI4fHFc2\">https:\/\/t.co\/tmeI4fHFc2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/MRi5t6RSQg\">pic.twitter.com\/MRi5t6RSQg<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Hyperliquid Daily (@HYPERDailyTK) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HYPERDailyTK\/status\/2013451721394340073?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Following the ICO, Trove representatives announced they would retain $9.3 million to build the platform&#8217;s infrastructure. This move was seen as a red flag, and the team faced sharp criticism from the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Subsequently, the developers launched TROVE and within minutes executed a <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/how-to-spot-a-rug-pull-signs-and-safeguards\">rug pull<\/a>, seizing liquidity worth approximately $2.5 million. ICO participants did not receive refunds.<\/p>\n<p>No new posts have appeared on Trove Markets&#8217; official page on X since the token&#8217;s collapse.<\/p>\n<p>Under the team&#8217;s last post, on-chain researcher ZachXBT shared a photo of a person who introduced himself as one of the project&#8217;s co-founders at the Token 2049 conference in October 2025.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-conversation=\"none\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">For Trove victims here\u2019s who was introducing themselves as its founder unwisecap during a side event at Token2049 in Oct 2025 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/te2RzsSBtz\">pic.twitter.com\/te2RzsSBtz<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 ZachXBT (@zachxbt) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/zachxbt\/status\/2013493657551110381?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 20, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A user named Fantardio <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Fantardio\/status\/2013342862411239435?s=20\">suggested<\/a> filing a class action lawsuit against Trove Markets.\u00a0<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cMy $20,000 investment [\u2026] 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,\u201d said an affected investor.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier in January, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/former-new-york-mayor-denies-rug-pull-allegations-after-nyc-token-collapse\">accused<\/a> of a rug pull following the collapse of NYC Token.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 20, the native token of perp-DEX Trove Markets (TROVE) plummeted by 98% just minutes after the ICO \u2014 the FDV of the coin dropped from $20 million to $110,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":93461,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Trove Markets' token fell 98% post-ICO; developers accused of rug pull.","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1246,596],"class_list":["post-93460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-scammers","tag-tokens"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"241","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Trove Markets' token fell 98% post-ICO; developers accused of rug pull.","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93460"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93462,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93460\/revisions\/93462"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}