Coinbase to Suspend Trading of the Movement (MOVE) Token on May 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Coinbase will be suspending trading for the Movement token (MOVE) on May 15 at 2:00 p.m. ET, the exchange announced on Thursday.

The exchange said in a statement that the MOVE order books have already been switched to limit-only mode, meaning that users can place or cancel limit orders, but trading at the market price is disabled.

MOVE’s price dropped roughly 20% following Coinbase’s announcement, falling from $0.25 to $0.20.

The token is set to be fully delisted at 2:00 p.m. ET on May 15, at which point users will no longer be able to place or cancel limit orders.

MOVE’s price dropped sharply following Coinbase’s announcement, falling roughly 20% from $0.25 to $0.20.

The exchange said that it regularly monitors assets to ensure that they continue to meet listing standards.

“As part of this process, we're making the difficult decision to suspend trading in Movement (MOVE) token at 2:00pm (ET) on May 15, and we'll fully delist the asset at 2:00pm (ET) on May 15,” the exchange stated.

The decision comes amid controversy surrounding MOVE’s market activity and governance. In mid-April, the Movement Network was scrutinized after co-founder Cooper Scanlon took a leave of absence and reports surfaced of “market maker abnormalities.”

This had led to speculation that the project could be linked to a pump-and-dump scheme.

Those abnormalities are now being investigated in connection with a market maker called Web3Port.

Internal documents obtained by CoinDesk reveal that Web3Port, a China-based firm, was assigned over 5% of MOVE’s total token supply, which was then allegedly routed through an obscure entity called Rentech.

This arrangement allowed Rentech to offload MOVE tokens if the project’s fully diluted value exceeded $5 billion—an event that reportedly occurred on December 9, the day MOVE launched on Binance.

On that day, Web3Port liquidated 66 million MOVE tokens, generating $38 million from the sales and triggering a sharp price decline. Those same tokens are now worth about $15.7 million.

According to the documents, any profits arising from such sales were split 50/50 between Rentech and the Movement Foundation.

Web3Port and the Movement Foundation both have ties to World Liberty Financial Inc., a crypto venture backed by members of the Trump family.

In January, WLFI purchased 3.42 million MOVE tokens for $1.5 million and also received a $10 million investment from Web3Port.