2-5-2025 – Movement Labs has suspended its co-founder Rushi Manche amidst allegations of a contentious token arrangement that sent shockwaves through the digital asset community.
The controversy centres on an unprecedented token dump involving 66 million MOVE tokens, orchestrated through a complex web of relationships between Movement Labs and a purported market maker, Rentech. The firm, which presented itself as a subsidiary of Chinese enterprise Web3Port, has come under intense scrutiny for its role in what industry observers are calling a calculated market manipulation scheme.
Legal experts retained by the Movement Foundation had raised significant red flags about the arrangement, describing it as potentially the most problematic agreement they had encountered. Despite these warnings, the contract proceeded, leading to a massive token sell-off within 24 hours of MOVE’s December launch.
The ripple effects of this financial machination have prompted Binance, one of the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchanges, to take decisive action. The exchange has frozen $38 million in profits and severed ties with the market maker, citing egregious misconduct in creating an artificially thin market through asymmetric trading patterns.
Further complications have emerged regarding the governance structure, as internal documents obtained by CoinDesk revealed Manche’s continued involvement in both Movement Labs and the nonprofit Foundation, despite intended separation between the entities. Groom Lake, an independent firm, is currently conducting a comprehensive governance audit to examine these entanglements.
The crisis deepened as Coinbase announced its decision to halt MOVE token trading by 15 May, triggering a sharp decline in the token’s value to 20 pence, its lowest recorded price. The token has experienced a 21% decrease in value, according to Coingecko’s market data.
Within the project’s communication channels, moderators have attempted to maintain calm, emphasising the ongoing third-party investigation. Movement Labs has publicly distanced itself from the token dump, stating it occurred without their authorisation and in violation of their agreement.