Movement Labs has terminated co-founder Rushi Manche following mounting scrutiny over his involvement in a controversial token deal that led to a massive dump of MOVE tokens and a subsequent collapse in price. The decision, made public on May 7, 2025, follows a week of internal investigations and escalating community backlash.
At the heart of the scandal is a December 2024 agreement with a market-making firm called Rentech, which received 66 million MOVE tokens—approximately 5% of the token’s total supply. Investigations revealed that Rentech rapidly liquidated its allocation shortly after MOVE’s public launch, netting $38 million in sales and severely impacting market confidence.
More troubling were findings that Rentech operated as both a subsidiary of Web3Port and an agent of the Movement Foundation. These overlapping roles raised red flags over potential self-dealing and undisclosed affiliations. Internal communications and documents indicate that Manche was closely involved in negotiating and approving the deal, despite legal warnings over the risks such arrangements posed to token holders and the broader ecosystem.
Allegations of Self-Dealing and Regulatory Scrutiny
The MOVE token’s abrupt price drop drew attention from major exchanges and prompted swift action. Coinbase announced it would suspend trading of MOVE, citing concerns that the token no longer met its listing standards. Within 24 hours, MOVE had fallen 8.5%, and by the end of the week, the token had lost more than 35% of its value.
Amid growing community outrage, Movement Labs suspended Manche on May 2 and brought in third-party review firm Groom Lake to conduct a comprehensive governance audit. The findings of that audit have not been fully disclosed, but the project acted quickly, announcing Manche’s official termination five days later.
Leadership Shake-Up and Strategic Rebrand
In the wake of the scandal, Movement Labs has rebranded itself as Move Industries in a bid to reset its public image and restore trust among users and investors. Along with the rebrand, the company has introduced a new executive team, naming Torab Torabi as CEO and Will Gaines as President and Chief Marketing Officer.
According to the new leadership, the company plans to strengthen 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 is pushing ahead with a renewed roadmap. Key initiatives include MoveDrop, a token incentive program; the Parthenon upgrade, focused on protocol scalability; and DeFi Spring, a new suite of decentralized finance tools aimed at expanding the platform’s ecosystem. The team has scheduled a community Ask Me Anything (AMA) session for Friday to address concerns and outline next steps.
The fallout from this incident serves as a stark reminder of the critical need for transparency, sound governance, and accountability in the Web3 space, where trust and integrity are as foundational as the code itself.