Movement $MOVE confirn that Rushi Manche has been suspended from Movement Labs. This decision was made in light of ongoing events and as the third-party review is still being conducted by Groom Lake regarding organizational governance and recent incidents involving a market maker.
Movement Labs, the team behind the high-profile layer 2 blockchain project, announced on Friday that it has suspended co-founder Rushi Manche.
The decision follows an ongoing third-party review focusing on organizational governance and recent incidents related to a market maker’s actions. This suspension comes at a time when the project is under increasing scrutiny, particularly around its MOVEtoken.
In the midst of the controversy, Coinbase revealed on Thursday that it would be halting trading of the MOVE token on May 15. The exchange has already shifted the MOVE order books to limit-only mode. Although Coinbase did not explicitly cite the reason for the suspension, it stated that the decision followed a routine review of listing standards.
The Movement Network Foundation maintains that it was unaware of the market maker’s actions. It alleges it was only informed of the misconduct on March 11, 2025. Initially, the foundation had engaged the market maker based on its previous track record. However, upon discovering the breach of agreement, the foundation severed ties immediately. Additionally, it alerted other major exchanges to the ongoing investigation.
In addition, CoinDesk reported this week that Movement Labs is investigating whether it was misled into signing a market-making agreement. This agreement allowed a middleman, Rentech, to control the 66m MOVE tokens.
The agreement allegedly led to a $38m selloff, sparking accusations of market manipulation. Internal documents suggest that Rentech acted on both sides of the deal. This raises conflict-of-interest concerns, as Rentech was both an agent of the Movement Foundation and a subsidiary of Web3Port.
The fallout from this incident exposed internal divisions, with Movement’s legal counsel initially opposing the deal but being overruled. The investigation is now focused on whether co-founder Rushi Manche or advisors like Sam Thapaliya had a deeper involvement than initially disclosed.
