First sip
Trove raised about $11.45M in its ICO and built major attention as a Hyperliquid-adjacent perp DEX pitch for illiquid markets like collectibles and event-driven assets. After a late pivot to Solana, the token launched and dropped roughly 95 percent.
The drop was not the unique part. The surrounding behavior was. Allegations of paid influencer promotion without disclosure, questions around oversubscription and refunds, claims of faked volume and a pseudonymous team that stayed mostly silent as scrutiny increased.
ZachXBT pointed to roughly $45,000 USDC moving via Mayan Finance from a Solana wallet linked to the project to Ethereum, landing in a confirmed Shuffle deposit address with outflows to a casino.
Watch next: Trove ICO fallout causing questions about disclosures within web3
☕ Quick sip
When a launch is everywhere on your timeline, what do you do?
This week on Coffee with Captain
Trove exposed promo culture stress points: Undisclosed incentives, refund ambiguity, and team silence turned a launch into a credibility event (Tue–Wed)
Distribution incentives showed up everywhere: From X changing creator payouts to InfoFi backlash, attention mechanics were under pressure all week (Mon–Wed)
New onboarding paths keep shortening funnels: Otherside’s Amazon drop highlighted how friction removal changes who can participate (Thu)
Narratives met reality checks: BIRB rumors and MegaETH vs Solana debates put mechanics and distribution back ahead of vibes (Fri)
Listen now
Monday - X Reworks Creator Incentives, SEO Shifts Toward AI Answers
Tuesday - Trove Markets ICO Crashes 95%, KOL Shill Backlash
Wednesday - Trove Shill Fallout, How Grok’s drb.eth Wallet Works
Thursday - Otherside’s Amazon Drop, Onchain Games Without the Wallet
Friday - Moonbirds BIRB Token Rumors, MegaETH vs Solana
PS: Vote in the Quick sip poll and reply with the one stablecoin use case you think will hit first
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DISCLAIMER: This newsletter is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Make any investment decisions with a qualified professional. I may hold digital assets referenced here.