Investors in crypto exchange for Pokémon cards furious as they lose 98% of their investments

Investors in a purported crypto exchange that lets users bet on the prices of collectables like rare Pokémon cards have been left in the lurch after the project’s token crashed more than 98% mere minutes after it launched.

On January 11, Trove Markets raised $11.5 million from investors through a token sale conducted on Hyperliquid, the buzzy blockchain tied to the $5.4 billion crypto exchange of the same name.

But a last-minute switch from building the exchange on Hyperliquid, coupled with allegations that the project’s team had misused funds and engaged in misleading marketing, obliterated investor confidence.

When Trove launched its token on Monday, it immediately crashed some 98% from a market value of around $21 million to just $330,000.

Now, thousands of investors are looking for answers.

“My $20,000 investment… should have resulted in $14,000 USDC back and $6,000 in $TROVE,” said one investor. “Due to the token giga nuking, they gave me in total $600 back.”

Trove’s anonymous developers said they have refunded just over $2.4 million to early investors, but will keep the remaining $9.4 million raised to continue building a futures exchange on Solana, a rival blockchain.

“Trove is not disappearing,” the developers said in a Monday X post. “We are not ‘taking the money and running.’”

4,000% return

Trove aims to combine two of the most popular trends among crypto investors: collectables investing and leverage trading.

Its stated goal is to create a perpetual futures exchange for trading in-demand collectables, including rare Pokémon trading cards and Counter Strike 2 gun skins. Traders will be able to take on leverage that can juice gains — or exacerbate losses.

With the value of Pokémon cards soaring and investors piling into them at an unprecedented rate, investor interest in a platform based around trading the collectables was high.

Pokémon cards, as measured through the Card Ladder Index, have produced a roughly 4,000% cumulative return since 2004, vastly outperforming the S&P 500, an index of the top 500 US stocks, which is up 513% over the same period.

Over the past three months, Pokémon cards have seen a 20% return.

In comparison, Bitcoin is down some 15% over the same period.

Counter Strike 2 gun skins, cosmetic items in the popular first-person shooter game, hit an all-time high market value of $4.2 billion in March.

The market crashed by some $3 billion in October after the game’s creator, Valve, added new ways to obtain rare skins.

Accusations mount

Even before Trove’s token launched and plummeted in value, critics were raising the alarm over the project’s suspicious behaviour.

They’ve accused Trove of paying influencers to promote the project to their followers without disclosure, while offering them discounts to participate in the token sale.

Several critics have posted screenshots of conversations on social media that appear to show a member of Trove’s team soliciting influencers for paid promotions and offering discounts. DL News could not independently verify the veracity of the screenshots.

On January 17, pseudonymous crypto investigator ZachXBT posted an onchain analysis, which he said shows Trove’s developers sending $45,000 raised from investors to the deposit address of a crypto casino. DL News did not independently confirm his analysis.

Trove has yet to respond to these allegations publicly and didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment.

The project said it has committed portions of the funds it raised to pay for its developer team, operating expenses, and paying influencers to market the project, among other things.

Investors still threw more than $11 million at the project.

Crypto token sales have become increasingly popular in recent months as US President Donald Trump’s administration takes a more lenient approach to crypto regulation.

Such sales give investors the chance to get in on a project very early — usually before it has launched.

Previous early-stage token sales have generated huge returns. It’s for this reason that investors often overlook the risks associated with them.

Tim Craig is DL News’ Edinburgh-based DeFi Correspondent. Reach out with tips at tim@dlnews.com.