Movement Labs Suspends Co-founder Rushi Manche as It Continues to Investigate a Scandal Involving One of Its Former Market Makers

In a post on X dated May 2, Movement Labs confirmed Manche’s suspension as a third-party investigation by Groom Lake continues. The move came just hours after Coinbase announced it would suspend all Movement (MOVE) trading pairs starting May 15, citing failure to meet its listing standards.

As part of an ongoing investigation into a former market maker, Movement Labs has suspended co-founder Rushi Manche.

Coinbase is also shutting down all Movement (MOVE) trading pairs on May 15 due to the project no longer meeting the exchange’s listing standards.

Coinbase will suspend all Movement (MOVE) trading pairs on May 15, as the project no longer meets the exchange’s listing standards.

In a statement on Friday, Coinbase said it would be shutting down derivatives and spot trading pairs for the token, adding that users will have 14 days to close out their positions.

“After careful consideration, we have decided to delist Movement (MOVE) on May 15 at 8 am PDT,” said Coinbase. “We will be shutting down all derivatives and spot trading pairs at that time.”

Coinbase did not disclose the specific reason for delisting MOVE, but it had previously shifted the token into limit-only mode. Earlier this year, Binance also reported an alleged market manipulation scheme.

The dispute arose from a token dump in December, during which a market maker, presented as Rentech and falsely claimed to be affiliated with Web3Port, sold 66 million MOVE tokens for an estimated profit of 38 million Tether (USDT).

However, Binance froze the funds and notified the Movement Foundation and Movement Labs, as reported by several media outlets.

Rentech appears to be an independent shell entity with no digital footprint, and the market maker’s actions were deemed exploitative by the Movement community.

According to leaked contracts, Rentech reportedly controlled more than 5% of MOVE’s entire supply, and the terms encouraged price inflation to a valuation of $5 billion ahead of a planned sell-off.

To mitigate the damage, the Foundation said it would be shutting down its collaboration with the market maker and launching a new reserve fund for a $38 million USDT buyback.

The results of the independent investigation will determine whether Movement executives were directly involved in the scheme or were misled by a third party.

Currently trading at $0.19 and down more than 20% in the past 24 hours, MOVE faces additional downside risk should support at $0.18 fail to hold.

The MOVE/USDC chart shows a clear downtrend that began in late March. After a brief recovery, the token was rejected at the 20-day moving average, which is closely approaching $0.24.

The price action is still below all of the major moving averages, and the relative strength index is nearing 32, suggesting that the bearish momentum is still present.

The volume spike, which shows traders reacting strongly to the recent news, adds volatility to an already unstable chart.

With the project’s credibility now depending on transparency and the results of the ongoing review, the administrative burdens are quickly piling up on the startup.