Trove Markets, which is building a decentralized perpetual exchange for collectibles, is under fire for pivoting to Solana after raising over $11.5 million tied to a token sale for an integration on Hyperliquid, prompting some backers to seek refunds.
Trove first announced the surprise move to Solana in a post to X on Friday, with one of Trove’s builders, “Unwise,” later blaming the pivot on a liquidity partner withdrawing 500,000 Hyperliquid (HYPE) tokens needed for the Hyperliquid integration.
“This changes our constraints: we’re no longer building on Hyperliquid rails, so we’re rebuilding the perp DEX on Solana from the ground up.”
The TROVE token sale ran from Jan. 8 to Jan 11, and the token generation event is now slated for Monday at 4:00 pm UTC.
“Due to the move to Solana and the refund processing, we need more time to execute this correctly,” Trove said.
In November, Trove raised a separate $20 million to purchase 500,000 HYPE tokens needed for Hyperliquid’s mandatory HIP-3 stake, which locks the capital as a slashable security bond to launch a perps market.
The decision to pivot to Solana has sparked criticism from the Trove community, with some demanding refunds, while others seek clarity on how the Solana pivot could affect refunds.
“Refund everyone ASAP and re-raise with your new conditions/roadmap,” X user NMTD.HL said. “People did not invest in your ICO for you to launch on Solana.”
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X user HYPEconomist added: “Refund the people now!!! You raised to money to build on hyperliquid! Give back the money and raise on solana if you think that’s what your community really wants.”
Trove plans to focus its perps trading experience on collectibles such as Pokémon cards and Counter-Strike 2 skins — a market that Bitwise projected in September could grow into a $21.4 billion industry.
Crypto analyst flags suspicious Trove transfers
Meanwhile, crypto sleuth ZachXBT and the Hyperliquid News X account have flagged several Trove transfers that involve the movement of HYPE tokens, citing data from Hyperliquid block explorer Hypurrscan.
Cointelegraph reached out for comment but didn’t receive an immediate response.
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