MOVE Token in Turmoil as Co-Founder Vanishes, Probe Launched

Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, is said to be on a brief leave amid scrutiny over unusual trading activity involving MOVE tokens.

According to sources quoted by Blockworks, Manche did not attend a recent company offsite and was briefly inactive on internal communication platforms. His Slack account was reportedly deactivated before being restored this week.

Although Manche has continued posting updates about Movement on social media, his absence from internal operations has raised questions within the community. One photo posted this week shows him at a conference, but the date of the event has not been verified. As of now, there has been no formal announcement from Movement Labs confirming his current role or responsibilities.

me: literally at an apac conference talking about ai

press: BUT HE MISSED HIS INTERNAL ONSITE?

bruh. https://t.co/APAIJ2ysgW

— rushi (@rushimanche) April 15, 2025

Foundation Launches Third-Party Review of Market Activity

The Movement Network Foundation has initiated an independent investigation into abnormal trading activity that took place in March. The investigation centers on a market maker Binance removed after offloading around $38 million in MOVE tokens soon after the token launched. Binance noted that the trades were mostly sell-side, with very limited buy orders placed.

The exchange claimed to have notified both Movement Labs and the Foundation after detecting the trades, and said it froze a large portion of the profits for potential user compensation. Binance did not publicly name the entity involved, but confirmed the actions went against normal market maker behavior.

Foundation Announces Buyback in Response to Trade Concerns

Following the discovery of the unusual trading activity, the Foundation announced a buyback effort totaling 38 million USDT. This initiative, according to the Foundation, is meant to support the MOVE token’s liquidity and bring stability to the market after the March trading events.

At the time of the announcement, the Foundation said it had no prior knowledge of the trades and was cooperating fully with Binance and other parties. The MOVE token saw a drop of more than 12% and continued to fall, trading down 8.4% by press time, according to Coingecko.

Ongoing Questions Around Project Structure and Transparency

Movement has previously been at the center of scrutiny over early token distributions. In January, Manche responded to questions regarding MOVE purchases by a politically linked group ahead of the mainnet launch. He denied any wrongdoing and said the purchases were unrelated to insider knowledge.

There has also been confusion around how to classify Movement. While it uses Ethereum as a base layer, the platform operates with the Move programming language developed for Meta’s Diem project. The team has distanced itself from the traditional Layer 2 label, which has added to the lack of clarity around its framework.

Neither Manche nor Movement Labs has issued further comments regarding the investigation or the leadership situation.