Trove Markets discreetly refunds influencers via stablecoins after ICO crash

Trove Markets, a decentralized exchange platform, refunded select influencers in stablecoins following the collapse of its native token, according to blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps.

BREAKING: @TroveMarkets quietly refunded KOLs while presale participants lost everything

Onchain proof and leaked chats 🧵 pic.twitter.com/GD7cYX8790

— Bubblemaps (@bubblemaps) February 12, 2026

The project raised $11.5 million in an initial coin offering, initially marketed to launch on Hyperliquid. But shortly before the token generation event, Trove announced on X that it would instead launch on Solana. Around the same time, a third-party liquidity provider offloaded $20 million worth of HYPE tokens.

When the $TROVE token went live, it plummeted 99%, wiping out ICO investor capital.

Blockchain data reviewed by Bubblemaps shows $100,000 in USDC and $350,000 in USDT were sent from wallets linked to the Trove deployer to newly funded wallets within 24 hours of the crash. The firm connected the transactions to a leaked Telegram chat in which Trove’s founder discussed compensating a key opinion leader who had demanded a refund.

Additional transfers totaling more than $250,000 in stablecoins were traced to wallets tied to other influencers in the same period.