The price per token in the private sale was 0.00003125 ETH. I doubt that investors from the private sale would sell their tokens with a loss just after the first listing on an exchange. Especially when they knew that this project is a long shot when they decided to invest.
The top investors will not risk selling out their tokens at this time., it is actually a bad move and might lead to a very big dump in value of the tokens.
If I was a private investor I would not be selling my tokens at this price. COVA is a great project and they are slowly building up steam. They had a very good end to the year and I'm expecting them to continue developing their project in 2019.
You're right, selling at this moment doesn't make sense, though individuals may have their various reasons or priorities but the fact is, this is just starting and its not just a brand that will create and sell their product/services the next day, it will be a continuous thing since it has to do with internet protocol and the development of security measures
People panic sell, it's been a poor market recently and some investors might have held tokens for a long time. Maybe now that the tokens are listed on exchanges it has allowed these investors to free up some liquidity by cashing in earlier. You're right this project has only just really started to put the gears in motion and get their internet protocol ready for release. There are big things in store for COVA, people just need to keep faith in the team.