Catenaa, Friday, April 18, 2025- The Movement Network Foundation has launched a third-party investigation into alleged “market maker abnormalities” following last month’s trading irregularities involving the MOVE token, according to a report from Blockworks.
The probe comes amid reports that Movement Labs co-founder Rushi Manche has taken a “temporary leave of absence.” Citing anonymous sources, the report said Manche was absent from a recent company offsite and had his internal communication accounts deactivated, though they were later reactivated.
In March, Binance flagged and suspended an unnamed market maker for dumping 66 million MOVE tokens, worth around $38 million, shortly after launch while placing minimal buy orders. The crypto exchange said it froze a portion of the proceeds to compensate affected users and informed Movement of the misconduct.
In response, the Movement Foundation confirmed it had been unaware of the trading activity and announced a $38 million USDT buyback program aimed at restoring ecosystem liquidity and long-term MOVE token stability.
Despite Manche’s reduced internal presence, he remained publicly active on social media, sharing updates on Movement’s partnerships and appearing at a recent conference.
Movement uses the Move programming language, originally developed by Meta, and operates on Ethereum infrastructure, though its exact classification in the blockchain stack has been debated. The project has faced prior scrutiny over insider trading concerns and affiliations with political and crypto influencers.
The foundation has not commented on Manche’s status or the ongoing investigation.
