What went wrong with PulseChain?

No, seriously:

- launches in May 2023 as Richard Heart’s Ethereum fork
- $PLS becomes the native gas token
- PulseX becomes the main DEX
- builds an entire ecosystem around $PLS, $PLSX and HEX
- DeFi TVL eventually pushes it to $400M
- one major seller dumps ~$809K of $PLSX in a single day
- PulseX TVL falls to ~$58M
- PulseX does only $4.4M in daily volume
- generates only $13.6K in daily fees
- capital appears to be leaving multiple PulseChain protocols simultaneously

And then you have the founder Richard Heart:

- SEC sues Heart and related entities in 2023
- alleges $1B was raised through crypto offerings
- alleges at least $12M was used to purchase luxury goods

(case dismissed in February 2025 for lack of US jurisdiction)

- SEC walks away from the case in April
- Finnish authorities separately investigate Heart
- wallets allegedly connected to Heart move 47,200 ETH worth ~$151M
- other allegedly connected wallets move ~81,000 ETH worth ~$323M

(none of this proves Heart is currently selling $PLS but it’s weird)

October 2026:

$PLS is trading at $0.00000938

83% below the ~$0.000055 launch reference commonly cited for PulseChain

PulseX TVL is ~$58M

multiple major protocols are losing double-digit TVL in a week

And no new buyers to absorb them

What a downfall so far.