Sort out the timeline of Movement events, members, and core conflicts to restore the truth.
The $MOVE tokens issued by Movement Labs faced a massive sell-off (valued at $38 million) on the second day of their launch, causing a price crash.
The investigation found this related to an extremely suspicious market-making agreement that transferred control of a large number of tokens (accounting for nearly half of the public circulation) to a nearly trace-less intermediary company, Rentech.
The question now is: Was Movement deceived by this intermediary, or did someone inside (possibly executives or advisors) participate in or facilitate this problematic agreement for early cashing out?
Mainly involves:
Movement Labs: Development company (founders Cooper Scanlon, Rushi Manche)
Movement Foundation: Non-profit foundation managing tokens (lawyer YK Pek)
$MOVE: Project token
Web3Port: Alleged market maker (related to Trump-linked funds)
Rentech: Mysterious intermediary (owner Galen Law-Kun)
Sam Thapaliya: Founder Advisor of Movement and business partner of Law-Kun
World Liberty Financial: Trump-related fund, supporter of Movement
Binance: Listed MOVE on the exchange, later banned the market-making account.
Timeline and event sorting:
1. Background (2024 or earlier):
Movement Labs was founded by young founders and secured $38 million in investments, including from Trump-linked funds, garnering significant attention.
The project adopts a common Labs (development) + Foundation (token management) structure.
Sam Thapaliya becomes the founder advisor and is a business partner of Rentech owner Law-Kun.
YK Pek serves as the foundation's lawyer and has provided limited corporate services for Law-Kun's other companies.
2. Suspicious agreement emerges (November 2024):
November 25: An agreement unknown to the foundation was signed: Web3Port (borrower) signed an agreement with "Movement" (lender, represented by Rentech). The terms of this agreement are harsh, including clauses for token profit liquidation upon meeting price targets, similar to a version later rejected by the foundation. Key point: Rentech here represents Movement.
November 27: Rentech directly proposed another market-making agreement to Movement (possibly the foundation). This agreement proposed lending up to 5% of MOVE tokens (a huge amount) to Rentech, a company with no records, and included a clause for liquidation upon complete dilution valuation of over $5 billion, with profits split 50-50 with the foundation. Experts believe this incentivized price manipulation followed by a crash.
3. Foundation's internal tug-of-war and final signing (late November 2024 - December 8):
Movement Labs co-founder Rushi Manche forwarded the (possibly November 27 version) Rentech agreement to the foundation for signature.
Foundation lawyer YK Pek strongly opposed the agreement after seeing it, calling it the "worst agreement he has ever seen" and warning it would give market control to unknown entities. Foundation director Marc Piano also refused to sign.
Turning point: The foundation did not completely terminate contact.
Rentech changes strategy, claiming to be a subsidiary of Web3Port, and offers to provide $60 million in collateral (increasing credibility).
December 8: The foundation finally signed a revised agreement. The agreement was mainly drafted by Pek, who initially opposed it.
The borrower is nominally Web3Port, but signed by representatives of Rentech's board.
Key point: Rentech here represents Web3Port (borrower) in signing with the foundation (lender).
The agreement still allows for lending 5% of the tokens and includes profit clauses but removed some original abusive clauses (such as compensation for not being listed on specific exchanges).
Doubt: The email domain used by Rentech's board to sign the agreement (web3portrentech.io) was registered on the same day.
4. Token launch and crash (December 9 - 10, 2024):
December 9: The MOVE token debuted on the exchange.
December 10: A wallet related to Web3Port (possibly through tokens controlled by Rentech) immediately sold 66 million MOVE, worth $38 million, leading to a price crash.
5. Consequences and Investigation (December 2024 to present):
Binance banned the related market-making accounts for "misconduct".
Movement announced a token buyback plan and denied any internal improper trading.
The incident triggered internal conflicts and mutual accusations: Co-founder Scanlon stated internally that Movement was a "victim" misled by Rentech and hired third-party audit firm Groom Lake for investigation.
The investigation also focuses on another co-founder Manche (who initially forwarded the agreement and was later temporarily suspended), as well as "shadow advisor" Thapaliya (who is a partner of Rentech's owner and was copied in related emails, accused of having behind-the-scenes influence).
Rentech owner Law-Kun retaliated, claiming foundation lawyer Pek participated in the establishment of Rentech’s structure and provided contract advice.
Pek strongly denies Law-Kun's claims, stating he only provided basic services, expressing confusion and discomfort at the accusations, and pointing out it was Manche who introduced Rentech's lawyer to them.
Web3Port remains silent.
April 30, 2025: CoinDesk exposes the matter. Movement Labs issued a statement confirming awareness of the report and stated that a third-party review is underway.
Currently, Movement is in extreme internal chaos, with conflicting statements from senior management, shifting blame onto each other. The results of a third-party investigation will be crucial, but this incident has severely damaged Movement's reputation and revealed the significant risks and opaque operations that may exist in cryptocurrency market-making.
