Trove refunded presale funds to influencers while token crashed 95%, firm says

Decentralized real-world asset (RWA) marketplace Trove (TROVE) refunded presale investments to select influencers while leaving general investors with significant losses, according to on-chain analysis platform Bubblemaps. Trove raised $11.5 million in an ICO in January, with the funds initially intended for Hyperliquid integration. However, the project later announced it would use the capital to transition to the Solana (SOL) ecosystem. The sudden pivot led some investors to demand refunds, and the price of the TROVE token subsequently plummeted by over 95%. The allegations follow community complaints that Trove paid promotional fees to certain key opinion leaders (KOLs) and that funds were misdirected. Trove has previously faced controversy for arbitrarily changing its token sale rules.