Movement Labs Suspends Co-Founder Rushi Manche Amid Market-Making Scandal
Catenaa, Thursday, May 08, 2025-Movement Labs has suspended its co-founder, Rushi Manche, following the ongoing investigation into a market-making scandal involving its MOVE token. The suspension came as the company awaits the results of a third-party review conducted by Groom Lake regarding governance issues and the controversial actions of a market maker. The controversy began after the December launch of Movement Network’s mainnet beta and native MOVE token. A market maker allegedly sold off 66 million MOVE tokens, netting a profit of $38 million in USDT. Binance identified the irregularities in March and froze the proceeds, notifying Movement Labs and Movement Foundation. The market maker, Rentech, had signed an agreement with Movement Labs, but the company was later found to have misrepresented Rentech as a subsidiary of Web3Port. Investigations revealed that Rentech controlled about 5% of the MOVE token supply, with incentives to inflate the token’s price before dumping it for profit-sharing, raising concerns of self-dealing. In response, Movement Labs launched a third-party investigation into the matter. The MOVE token has experienced significant market turbulence, with its price falling nearly 20% following the news, now trading at $0.20 with a market cap of $501.4 million.