Route change sparks controversy: Trove abandons Hyperliquid for Solana, $11.5 million funding raises questions

On January 19, news broke that the crypto project Trove Markets is facing strong skepticism and calls for refunds from supporters after suddenly abandoning its integration with Hyperliquid and fully migrating to the Solana network. Previously, Trove raised over $11.5 million through a token sale in early January, with the core narrative of that funding round centered around the Hyperliquid ecosystem. This strategic shift has been viewed by many participants as a “substantial change in direction.”

The Trove team explained on the X platform that the strategic pivot was due to changes in operational conditions. A developer named Unwise disclosed that a key liquidity partner withdrew approximately 500,000 HYPE tokens, which were originally intended to support the Hyperliquid integration plan. With this support gone, the team decided to abandon the original technical path and rebuild a decentralized exchange from scratch on Solana.

According to the schedule, the TROVE token sale was conducted from January 8 to 11, with the token generation event originally set to start at 16:00 UTC this Monday. However, the team later stated that due to on-chain migration and increasing refund requests, the overall timeline would be delayed to ensure a more secure execution process.

The controversy intensified further due to Trove’s past funding decisions. In November 2025, the project reportedly raised about $20 million separately to purchase 500,000 HYPE tokens to meet Hyperliquid’s HIP-3 mandatory staking mechanism. Now, after making related investments, the decision to abandon Hyperliquid has been criticized as severely damaging the trust of early supporters.

On the X platform, multiple users explicitly demanded refunds, emphasizing that their participation in the ICO was based on Hyperliquid-related products, not Solana-native solutions. Some argued that if the product’s positioning changes fundamentally, the project team should redesign the token sale terms rather than continue with the original funding results.

Trove plans to create a perpetual trading platform for collectible assets, including non-traditional assets like Pokémon cards and CS2 skins. Bitwise estimated last September that this niche market could reach a potential size of $21.4 billion. The Trove team responded that Solana’s performance and cost structure better align with this long-term vision.

Meanwhile, on-chain investigator ZachXBT disclosed several abnormal transfers involving HYPE tokens related to Trove, further raising concerns about fund management and governance transparency. As the funding process has been repeatedly adjusted and information has been inconsistent, Trove’s token sale controversy has become a highly discussed governance dispute case in the early 2026 crypto market.