On May 7, Movement Labs – a prominent project in the blockchain ecosystem – officially announced the firing of co-founder Rushi Manche and initiated a complete restructuring under the new name Move Industries.

Causes and consequences of the token dump scandal

This decision was made after the project became embroiled in a major investigation related to suspicious trading activities of the MOVE token – the native token of the network. The focus of the scandal is the token dump event in December 2024, which caused the price of MOVE to plummet sharply and created significant instability in the investor community.

To handle the crisis, Movement Labs has hired the blockchain investigation firm Groom Lake to clarify the situation. At the same time, the project has terminated its relationship with a market maker partner and announced a $38 million token buyback program to stabilize the price and reassure the community.

Rushi Manche – who is suspected of being involved in unusual trading activities – has denied all allegations and claimed that the project received misguided advice from external partners. However, as of now, he has not made any comments since being fired.

Restructuring and leadership change

After the incident, the project decided to comprehensively change its operational structure and rebrand from Movement Labs to Move Industries – a step that reflects the effort to refresh its image and regain community trust.

According to the announcement on the same day, Torab Torabi, one of the original founding members, will assume the role of CEO. Meanwhile, Will Gaines – who was previously in charge of marketing – has been appointed as Chairman.

Move Industries also announced that it will adjust its leadership philosophy, shifting focus to prioritizing community interaction and technology development, rather than just concentrating on marketing and increasing token prices. The new team emphasized:

“We will return to the radical roots of crypto. The goal is to build better opportunities for the community.”

MOVE token suffers severe collapse

The leadership crisis and token dump scandal have caused the value of MOVE to drop sharply. According to data from CryptoSlate, the price of MOVE has decreased by nearly 13% in the last 24 hours, down to $0.15 at the time of publication.

Over the course of a week, MOVE has lost more than 35%, and in the past month, the value of this token has evaporated by about 50%. Compared to the historical peak of $1.21 in December 2024, MOVE has lost about 87% of its value.

In light of the severe volatility, Binance has labeled MOVE with a Monitoring Tag – a warning for digital assets with high risk. Binance stated:

“Tokens with monitoring labels will be closely monitored and assessed regularly. If they do not meet listing criteria, the tokens may be delisted from the exchange at any time.”

Conclusion

The firing of Rushi Manche and the restructuring into Move Industries is a major effort to restore trust from investors and the community after the severe collapse of MOVE. However, with the token price plummeting uncontrollably and tight scrutiny from major exchanges, Move Industries will need more specific, transparent, and sustainable actions to restore its reputation and position in the crypto market.