Injective Community Approves Supply Squeeze Tokenomics Shift

Community reaction was mainly positive, as the move was framed as a structural reset rather than a short-term price driver. In contrast, Trove Markets faced intense backlash after abruptly pivoting from a Hyperliquid-based launch to Solana while retaining most of its $11.5 million raise. This quickly triggered refund demands, accusations of poor execution, and a steep 95% post-launch collapse in its TROVE token.

Injective approved a major overhaul of its tokenomics after the community overwhelmingly passed a new governance proposal that is aimed at tightening supply and reinforcing long-term deflationary dynamics. The vote was finalized on Monday, and passed with 99.89% support based on staked voting power. Overall, there was strong alignment among validators and token holders despite a prolonged period of market weakness for the network’s native token, INJ.

The proposal, known as the “Supply Squeeze” initiative (IIP-617), reduces ongoing token issuance while preserving Injective’s existing buyback-and-burn mechanism. Under this system, protocol-generated revenue is used to repurchase INJ from the open market and permanently remove it from circulation. 

Injective said roughly 6.85 million INJ tokens have already been burned to date, and the new framework is designed to accelerate this process by pairing lower issuance with recurring buybacks. According to the team, the changes are now live and are intended to make INJ one of the most deflationary crypto assets over time.

The governance decision comes against the backdrop of a steep decline in INJ’s market performance due to a broader sell-off across the altcoin market. Over the past year, INJ has dropped by close to 80% and is still more than 90% below its all-time high that was set in March of 2024. On Monday, the token fell by another 8%, based on data from CoinCodex. 

INJ price action over the past year (Source: CoinCodex)

Community response on X was mostly constructive, with many people describing the move as a structural, long-term adjustment rather than a catalyst for an immediate price rebound.

On-chain data also reflects the cooling activity across Injective’s decentralized finance ecosystem. According to DefiLlama, Injective currently has about $18.67 million in total value locked. This is down sharply from highs above $60 million recorded in 2024. Even so, the network continued to draw institutional attention in 2025. 

In July, both Cboe and Canary Capital filed regulatory applications for a staked Injective exchange-traded fund (ETF), proposing products that would hold and stake INJ to generate yield through approved staking platforms. The filings suggest that despite near-term challenges, Injective is still part of longer-term conversations around regulated crypto investment products.

Trove Faces Backlash After Solana Pivot

While the Injective community is certain about the project’s next move, Trove Markets is facing backlash from its community after announcing it would keep most of the funds raised for a Hyperliquid-based launch and instead pivot development to the Solana blockchain. The decision reignited criticism on X, particularly from investors who say they backed the project specifically for its planned integration with Hyperliquid.

Trove raised more than $11.5 million through a token sale tied to its proposed build on Hyperliquid. However, just days before its token generation event, the team revealed it would abandon that plan and focus on building a perpetuals decentralized exchange on Solana instead. 

One of Trove’s builders, who goes by the name “Unwise,” later attributed the shift to a liquidity partner withdrawing 500,000 HYPE tokens that were required for the Hyperliquid integration. The explanation did little to calm investor anger, with dozens of participants publicly calling for refunds.

In a follow-up statement on Monday, Trove said it would keep $9,397,403 from the total raise to continue development on Solana, and described the pivot as “the only path that keeps Trove alive as a real product.” The team acknowledged that not all costs incurred could be reversed but said it intended to keep building and deliver a collectibles-focused perpetuals DEX. Trove added that funds were spent, or earmarked, for frontend and backend development, a chief technology officer, advisory support, marketing, and operational expenses.

The team also said that more than $2.44 million had already been refunded to investors as part of what it called a cleanup process to protect distribution integrity, with an additional $100,000 set to be returned to participants from the initial coin offering. Even so, critics still questioned Trove’s execution. One X user even accused the project of incompetence and called it “the biggest scam in crypto ATM.”

Tensions escalated even more after Trove’s TROVE token collapsed shortly after launch. Within ten minutes of the TGE, the token plunged more than 95% to roughly $0.0008, wiping out most of its value and dragging its market capitalization from about $20 million to below $1 million. Analysis from blockchain forensics firm Bubblemaps showed that a single entity received 12% of the token supply through 80 newly created wallets funded via the non-custodial exchange ChangeHero, though Bubblemaps said it found no evidence directly linking those wallets to the Trove team.

Despite the controversy, Trove insisted it has no plans to shut down.