Public Sale Buyers Still Waiting for Tokens, Price Has Already Dropped 97%: Space Crashes on Opening
- Key Takeaway: The Solana-based leveraged prediction market project Space (token SPC) saw its market cap plummet over 97% from a peak of $83 million after trading began on April 29. Public sale participants were unable to trade as the project failed to distribute tokens on time, leading to accusations of a "soft rug pull."
- Key Elements:
- SPC's market cap hit $83 million at the opening but fell to $2.13 million on the same day, a drop of over 97%. As of April 30, its market cap was around $5.5 million.
- Public sale participants reported that trading began on exchanges before their tokens were distributed, locking them in at high prices and preventing them from selling during the crash.
- The total supply of SPC is 1 billion tokens, with 51% allocated to the community pool. However, the selling pressure at launch primarily came from insiders, market makers, or other groups who received tokens early.
- The project previously completed a $3 million seed round, positioning itself as a prediction market on Solana supporting up to 10x leverage, with 50% of protocol revenue allocated to buybacks and burns.
- The public sale originally aimed to raise $2.5 million but was oversubscribed to $20 million. This fundraising without prior disclosure, along with differential treatment of refund allocations for large investors, sparked controversy.
- The TGE was delayed from January 2026 to the end of April, with a lack of transparent information updates during the period. The community also questioned the project's predecessor as a nearly dead gaming project, UFO Gaming, and noted that no product had been launched.
Original Article by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On April 29, Solana-based leveraged prediction market project Space (token SPC) officially launched trading, simultaneously landing on five exchanges: Kraken, KuCoin, MEXC, BitMart, and Bitpanda. Its market cap peaked at approximately $83 million shortly after the opening, then entered a unilateral decline, hitting a low of $2.13 million the same day — a drop of over 97%.
As of April 30, SPC's market cap stood at around $5.5 million, still down over 93% from its opening high.
Alongside the crash, numerous public sale participants reported on X that the project team had not yet distributed tokens to public sale buyers, while exchange trading had already begun, causing prices to plummet before they could receive their coins. This effectively locked public sale participants in at high prices, watching the value drop from $0.08 to $0.005 without holding any tokens to trade.
One user directly accused the Space project of "taking $15 million," with FDV crashing from $70 million to below $8 million. Another user wrote: "Another day another scam... Down 90% in the first hour. Presale buyers couldn't even claim."
Who was selling concentratedly at the open? If public sale buyers hadn't received their tokens, then those selling on exchanges could only be insiders, market makers, or other groups who obtained tokens early. Their selling directly triggered the price collapse. Ordinary public sale participants, having not received their tokens, effectively became passive holders with no exit channel.
What is Space?
Space is positioned as the first prediction market platform on Solana supporting 10x leverage. Users can engage in YES/NO leveraged trading on events such as cryptocurrency, politics, and sports. The platform promises 0% Maker fees, with 50% of protocol revenue used to buy back and burn SPC. In December 2025, Space announced the completion of a $3 million seed round, with participation from Morningstar Ventures and Arctic Digital. Additionally, Space received investment from the echo community. A public sale was subsequently launched.
In terms of token allocation, the total supply of SPC tokens is 1 billion, with 51% allocated to the community pool.
8x Oversubscription, Refund Disputes Began in January
Launched on December 18, 2025, Space announced the start of its token public sale, accepting USDC, USDT, and SOL. It initially offered $2.5 million worth of tokens at a fixed FDV of $50 million. After reaching the target, sales would continue, but the FDV would increase linearly up to $99 million. After the public sale, each participant would purchase tokens at a calculated uniform price.
On January 21, Space released the public sale allocation process, stating it had raised over $20 million in total. Of this, $14 million had been allocated, and $6 million would be returned to participants on January 21. For participants who received (full or partial) allocation, tokens would be distributed at a clearing price of $0.069 ($69 million FDV), with partial refunds returned to specified wallet addresses on January 21.
However, the project subsequently faced community质疑 due to issues like fundraising scale and the team's historical background. Several community members indicated that the team's predecessor was believed to be the gaming project UFO Gaming, whose token price had plummeted nearly 95% from its all-time high.
The community accused Space of pivoting to a prediction market after its old project failed to gain traction, without releasing any public or beta version. Instead, it prioritized preparing Hyperliquid perpetual contract code, raising suspicions of a cash-out scheme. Additionally, the community expressed dissatisfaction that the project increased the public offering quota after oversubscription without prior notice, and pointed out that some large refund addresses were recently changed new addresses with no historical transaction records.
According to an official explanation, the project decided to refund over $7.3 million in excess funds, explaining that some address changes were due to participant security concerns. The raised funds would primarily be used for leverage pool, liquidity deployment, security audits, team expansion, and CEX listings. Regarding the fundraising scale controversy, Space explained that the previously mentioned $2.5 million was a soft cap, not a hard cap, and expanding the fundraising scale aimed to support leverage market liquidity and multi-year development, ensuring the project's long-term competitiveness.
However, community skepticism did not subside, focusing on whether the possibility of oversubscription was not fully disclosed in advance and whether large and small investors were treated differently during the refund process. Some users considered this already a "soft rug."
Four Months of Waiting, Resulting in a Crash
According to the earliest official information, Space's token SPC TGE was originally planned for around January 2026 but was actually delayed to the end of April. The three-plus months of waiting wore down community patience. From the January oversubscription controversy to the April TGE, buyers experienced a complete chain of opaque refunds, repeated schedule delays, and insufficient information updates. When tokens went live for trading on April 29, many public sale buyers found they hadn't received their tokens at all. The months of accumulated distrust erupted, resonating with post-opening selling pressure, causing prices to spiral out of control within hours.
As of press time, the project team has not issued an official statement regarding the April 29 price crash and the token distribution issue.
