Public sale buyers haven’t received their tokens yet, but the price has already dropped 97%: Space crashes immediately upon listing
- Core takeaway: The Solana leveraged prediction market project Space (token: SPC) saw its market cap plummet over 97% from a peak of $83 million after trading went live on April 29. Public sale participants were unable to trade because the project team failed to distribute tokens on time, leading to accusations of a "soft rug pull."
- Key elements:
- SPC’s market cap hit a high of $83 million at the opening, then plunged to $2.13 million the same day, a drop of over 97%. As of April 30, the market cap stood at approximately $5.5 million.
- Public sale participants reported that exchanges began trading the token before it was distributed to them, locking them in at high prices and preventing them from selling during the price crash.
- The total supply of SPC is 1 billion tokens, with 51% allocated to the community pool. However, the selling pressure after the 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 used for buybacks and burns.
- The public sale originally aimed to raise $2.5 million but was oversubscribed to $20 million, sparking controversy over undisclosed oversubscription and differential treatment in refunds favoring larger investors.
- The TGE was delayed from January 2026 to the end of April 2027. During this period, information updates were opaque, and the community questioned the project's origins, noting it evolved from the nearly dead gaming project UFO Gaming and had no product launch.
Original author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On April 29, Solana leveraged prediction market project Space (token: SPC) officially launched trading, simultaneously listing on five exchanges: Kraken, KuCoin, MEXC, BitMart, and Bitpanda. Its market cap peaked at approximately $83 million shortly after opening, then entered a unilateral decline, hitting a low of $2.13 million that day, a drop of over 97%.
As of April 30, SPC's market cap stands 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 the price to plummet before they could receive their tokens. This effectively locked public sale participants into a high position, watching the price fall from $0.08 to $0.005 without any tokens in hand to trade.
One user directly accused the Space project of "taking $15 million," noting the FDV crashed 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 heavily at the open? If public sale buyers hadn't received their tokens, then the only entities selling on exchanges were insiders, market makers, or other groups who received tokens early. Their selling directly triggered the price crash. Ordinary public sale participants, lacking their tokens, effectively became passive holders with no exit channel.
What is Space
Space is positioned as the first prediction market platform on Solana to support 10x leverage. Users can trade YES/NO on events like cryptocurrency, politics, and sports with leverage. The platform promises 0% Maker fees, and 50% of protocol revenue is used to buy back and burn SPC. In December 2025, Space announced the completion of a $3 million seed funding round, with participants including Morningstar Ventures and Arctic Digital. Additionally, Space received investment from the echo community. The public sale was initiated shortly after.
Regarding token distribution, SPC has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with 51% allocated to the community pool.
8x Oversubscription, Refund Controversy Started in January
Launched on December 18, 2025, Space announced its token public sale, accepting USDC, USDT, and SOL. It began by selling $2.5 million worth of tokens at a fixed FDV of $50 million. After reaching that target, sales continued, but the FDV increased linearly up to $99 million. After the public sale, each participant would purchase tokens at a calculated uniform price.
On January 21, Space detailed its public sale allocation process, stating it had raised over $20 million in total. Of that, $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 allocated at a clearing price of $0.069 ($69 million FDV). Partial refunds were to be returned to designated wallet addresses on January 21.
However, the project soon drew community scrutiny over the fundraising scale and the team's historical background. Several community members indicated that the team's previous project appeared to be the gaming project UFO Gaming, whose token price had crashed 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 prioritizing Hyperliquid perpetual contract code, raising suspicions of a cash-out scheme. Furthermore, the community expressed dissatisfaction over the project increasing the public offering amount after oversubscription without prior notice, and pointed out that some large refund addresses were changed to new addresses with no transaction history.
According to an official statement, the project decided to refund over $7.3 million in excess funds, explaining that some refund address changes were made by participants for security reasons. Raised funds would primarily be used for the leverage pool, initial liquidity for listings, security audits, team expansion, and CEX listing fees. Addressing 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 was intended to support leverage market liquidity and multi-year R&D to ensure long-term competitiveness.
But community doubts did not subside. The focus was on whether the possibility of oversubscription was adequately disclosed in advance and whether large holders and retail investors were treated differently during the refund process. Some users considered this a "soft rug."
Four Months of Waiting Led to 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. Over three months of waiting eroded the community's patience. From the January oversubscription controversy to the TGE's realization in late April, buyers experienced a full chain of opaque refunds, repeated schedule delays, and insufficient information updates. When the token began trading on April 29, many public sale buyers discovered they hadn't received their tokens, unleashing months of accumulated distrust. This resonated with the selling pressure at the opening, causing the price to spiral out of control within hours.
As of press time, the project team has not released an official statement regarding the April 29 price crash and the token distribution failure.
