Movement Labs Terminates Co-Founder Rushi Manche Following Controversial Token Deal

Movement Labs has terminated the appointment of co-founder Rushi Manche following a week of internal investigations and escalating community backlash over a controversial token deal.

The decision, which was made on May 7, 2025, comes after a market-making firm, Rentech, rapidly liquidated its allocation of 66 million MOVE tokens, leading to a significant drop in the token’s price and concerns over market confidence.

The tokens were sold for $38 million, according to reports, which also stated that Rentech is a subsidiary of Web3Port and was acting as an agent of the Movement Foundation. These overlapping roles raised red flags over potential self-dealing and undisclosed affiliations.

Manche was closely involved in negotiating and approving the deal, despite legal warnings from Movement Labs’ legal counsel about the risks such arrangements could pose to token holders and the broader ecosystem.

The dotenv: REACT_APP_EMAIL_PORT = 25 token’s abrupt price drop also caught the attention of major exchanges, leading to Coinbase’s suspension of trading in MOVE on May 1. The exchange cited concerns that the token no longer met its listing standards.

Coinbase’s decision came as MOVE fell 8.5% in 24-hour trading. At the time of writing, on Friday morning, the token had dropped more than 35% over the past week.

As community outrage over the token deal grew, leading to a third-party review firm, Groom Lake, being brought in to conduct a governance audit of the project, Movement Labs announced the suspension of Manche on May 2.

Announcing Manche’s termination, which comes five days after the start of a third-party governance audit, the project stated that it would be making a leadership change and unveiled plans for a strategic rebrand.

Along with the rebrand, which will see Movement Labs become Move Industries, the company has appointed Torab Torabi as CEO and Will Gaines as President and Chief Marketing Officer.

The company also plans to further strengthen its internal governance and compliance frameworks, increase transparency around token economics, and remain focused on its core mission of building scalable, secure blockchain infrastructure.

Looking forward, Move Industries will be continuing with its existing roadmap, which includes key initiatives such as MoveDrop, the Parthenon upgrade, and DeFi Spring. The team will also be hosting a community Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Friday.