There is only one way for this coin to recover in price, they would need to burn ALL or MOST of the premine.
That would give people and whales the confidence to speculate. They don't have anything to lose. Might as well go for it, am sure Karl has a little bag somewhere so he too should profit if he doesn't get distracted by a packet of biscuits or a pastry.
look at Ripple, its premine has no effect on the price and the people confidence.
The premine itself is not a problem as it could be used to finance the development of the coin & related projects, it all depends who controls it, and in the case of the Startcoin it is the problem

Ripple has some significant people behind it, Startcoin has Karl, if Karl burns it all Startcoin could become a insignificant pump coin (best case scenario), XRP has pumped but it is more than a pump coin (in theory).