We do not take pleasure in writing this article.
Seeing people lose their hard-earned money is never “karma,” never funny, and never justified. But facts matter and the facts are now undeniable:
TroveMarkets rug-pulled its community.
And TokenHunters warned about this months in advance.
This is not hindsight.
This is documentation.
The Timeline Nobody Wanted to Acknowledge
Let’s rewind.
October 2025 – Our Initial Vetting
In October 2025, TroveMarkets began circulating heavily across X (Twitter) as a “high-quality Solana collectible perpetual protocol.”
Like every project before it, TroveMarkets entered the TokenHunters Vetting Pipeline, a process we apply before any airdrop guide is ever listed.
Over 80% of projects fail this process.
TroveMarkets failed immediately.
What We Did (That Influencers Didn’t)
We connected a dedicated burner wallet on Solana
We inspected transaction behavior
We monitored wallet ownership state
We verified signer effects on-chain
Result:
The wallet was compromised immediately via a bit-flip ownership attack.
The ownership of the wallet account was changed away from the Solana System Program, a critical red flag that indicates account hijacking, not a UI bug, not “beta instability.”
We published our findings the same day:
🔗 Original Article (16 Oct 2025):
https://tokenhunters.xyz/news/trove-markets-scam-targeting-nft-traders/
We also warned publicly on X:
🔗 X Warning Post:
https://x.com/Tokenhuntersxyz/status/1978894722505609490
Nobody Listened - And We Know Why
Our article did not go viral.
It did not get thousands of likes.
It did not get reshared by large accounts.
Why?
Because TokenHunters does not buy followers.
Because we do not pay for promotion.
Because we do not run paid shill campaigns.
And that is precisely why our community stayed safe, while others didn’t.
January 2026 - The ICO & The Collapse
Fast-forward to 19–20 January 2026.
TroveMarkets launches its ICO / TGE.
Within hours:
Market cap collapses from ~$11–12M to ~$500K
Liquidity evaporates
Buy pressure disappears
Early allocators exit
Retail is left holding dust
🔗 On-chain & market damage (SolanaFloor):
https://x.com/SolanaFloor/status/2013352942103904710
This was not “bad execution.”
This was a textbook rugpull.
Same Playbook, Same Outcome
Independent researchers on X uncovered something even more damning:
The @TroveMarkets X account was registered the same month Aquabot rugged presalers
Identical structure:
Paid KOL promotion
Hype cycle
ICO
Token launch
Liquidity exit
Different name.
Same script.
CEO post on X back in 2025 😉
Who Was Behind TroveMarkets?
During Token2049 (October 2025), an individual presenting themselves as “unwisecap” publicly introduced themselves as the founder of TroveMarkets.
Images from that event are now circulating.
This is not an anonymous dev disappearing into the void, this was a real-world presence, real introductions, real credibility theater.
And yet:
No accountability
No refunds
No responsibility
The KOL Network - Exposed
Another investigator compiled a full list of accounts carrying a @TroveMarkets affiliate badge.
🔗 Affiliate list source:
https://x.com/spacexbt/status/2012529838486159535
Many of these accounts:
Never disclosed paid promotion
Never tested the dApp
Never used burner wallets
Never warned users
Immediately moved on after the rug
Let’s be extremely clear:
Follower count does not equal due diligence.
Verification badges do not equal integrity.
Why Influencers Failed - And We Didn’t
Influencer / KOL Model
Incentivized to promote
Paid per post or allocation
No downside if followers lose money
No on-chain testing
No accountability
TokenHunters Model
Manual testing of every single function
Burner wallets only
Ownership & signer verification
Transaction simulation
Zero paid promotions
Projects rejected daily
When an account is too big, they get paid to talk.
When an account is independent, they can afford to be honest.
Proof We Warned You - Before the Damage
October 2025: Wallet ownership attack detected
October 2025: Article published
October 2025: Public warning issued
January 2026: ICO launches
January 2026: Rugpull confirmed
The red flags were not subtle.
They were on-chain.
This Is Bigger Than TroveMarkets
TroveMarkets is not an exception.
It is a case study in why:
Blindly following airdrop influencers is dangerous
Paid promotion poisons signal
Manual testing matters more than narratives
If you lost money, we are genuinely sorry.
But let this be the last time you outsource your safety to people who don’t know your name.
What You Should Do Now
Unfollow every account that promoted TroveMarkets
Stop trusting follower counts
Stop trusting hype threads
Start trusting process
Then:
➡️ Follow @tokenhuntersxyz
➡️ Turn on notifications
➡️ Join a community that tests before it posts
We don’t promise moonshots.
We promise not to share rugs with you.
Final Words
We did not win today.
The crypto community lost money, and that is never a victory.
But the record is now clear:
TokenHunters warned you.
The rugpull was real.
The red flags were visible months ago.
We will continue doing what we’ve always done, quietly, independently, and correctly.
Stay safe. Stay skeptical. Stay with TokenHunters.
Share this article on X and support tokenhunters, let’s make web3 safe again!
Mike TokenHunters
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