On January 20, the native token of perp-DEX Trove Markets (TROVE) plummeted by 98% just minutes after the ICO concluded, with the coin's FDV dropping from $20 million to $110,000.
Hourly chart of TROVE/USD on the Meteora exchange. Source: GeckoTerminal.
In preparation for the launch on January 19, the developers of the Solana project raised funds on Hyperliquid. The team exceeded their target of $2.5 million, raising over $11.5 million.
Massive rug pull in crypto — $TROVE just got exposed hard.
— Hyperliquid Daily (@HYPERDailyTK) January 20, 2026
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
After the ICO, Trove representatives announced they would retain $9.3 million to build infrastructure for the platform. This move raised alarms, and the team faced sharp criticism from the community.
Subsequently, the developers launched TROVE and executed a rug pull, absconding with approximately $2.5 million in liquidity. ICO participants received no 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 identified themselves 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 collective 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 received a total of $600,” shared a victimized investor.
Recall that in January, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams was accused of a rug pull following the collapse of the NYC Token.