Movement Labs, the development firm behind the Movement network, has officially cut ties with co-founder Rushi Manche following revelations of undisclosed token deals and a disastrous market-making agreement.

The leadership shakeup sent the price of the networks native MOVE token spiraling to a new all-time low.

A Sudden Fall from Grace

Movement announced Manche’s firing in a May 7 post on its official X account. However, the tweet offered few details beyond confirming his immediate departure and promising forthcoming governance changes.

The 22-year-old was kicked out on the back of a CoinDesk story exposing secret agreements tied to MOVE’s token launch, including hidden advisor payments and questionable allocations to market makers.

Citing internal documents and investor communications it had reviewed, the publication alleged that Manche played a central role in orchestrating a deal between Movement Foundation and an entity named Rentech, supposedly headed by Singapore-based financier Galen Law-Kun.

Rentech was brought in to facilitate liquidity through Chinese market maker Web3Port. Under the agreement, Movement transferred 66 million MOVE tokens, approximately 5% of the circulating supply, under highly unconventional terms.

One provision reportedly allowed the market maker to liquidate its holdings once MOVE’s valuation reached $5 billion, splitting the profits with the Movement Foundation. Legal analysts have since described the deal as reckless, pointing to its built-in incentives for manipulation.

As CryptoPotato reported, Manche was placed on administrative leave on May 2, pending an external review by governance consultancy firm Groom Lake.

The foundation’s general counsel, YK Pek, had previously criticized the Rentech deal in internal discussions, calling it “the worst deal I have ever seen.” But despite that warning, a revised agreement was still signed.

For his part, Manche admitted to a lapse in judgement, saying he was misled by internal advisors and “opportunistic administrators” who, he claimed, operated as shadow decision-makers behind the scenes.

Among the names surfacing in the aftermath is that of Zebec founder Sam Thapaliya, who has denied formal involvement in the token launch process, but was allegedly copied on sensitive emails and was also present at Movement’s San Francisco office when MOVE hit the market.

In a lengthy personal statement posted on X on April 30, Manche wrote:

“This has been a brutal few weeks,” adding that “Mistakes were made. We trusted wrong advisors, mms, and folks going into a bear market.”

He also denied personally profiting from token sales and insisted that all market-making decisions were approved collectively by the foundation. Further, the co-founder hinted at internal power struggles and misaligned incentives, promising he would make further disclosures in time.

Price Carnage

The consequences for MOVE have been ugly. A few hours before this writing, as the market reacted to Manches dismissal, the token hit a new all-time low of $0.1566 per data from CoinGecko, a far cry from its $1.45 peak recorded in December 2024.

The cryptocurrency is currently trading at $0.16, marking an 8.9% decline in the past 24 hours. Furthermore, over the past week, it has dropped 34.9% of its value, a sharp contrast to the global crypto markets modest gain of 1.4% over the same period.