The Movement Network Foundation has issued a public statement addressing misconduct by a partnered market maker, pledging a $38 million USDT buyback of $MOVE tokens and reaffirming its commitment to transparency and ecosystem integrity.
Background:
- On March 24, the Movement Network Foundation released a formal statement detailing its response to a market maker's alleged breach of agreement involving the $MOVE token.
- According to the Foundation, the incident came to light after Binance notified the team of an investigation on March 11.
- The unnamed market maker, who had previously worked with projects in the Movement ecosystem, reportedly sold a large quantity of $MOVE tokens shortly after its Token Generation Event (TGE) in December 2024—without fulfilling its obligation to provide balanced liquidity on the $MOVE/$USDT pair.
- Movement Labs and the Foundation claim they had no prior knowledge of the market maker’s behavior, which they say directly violated the terms of their agreement.
Why Should You Pay Attention?
- This situation highlights the risks associated with liquidity partnerships in emerging blockchain ecosystems.
- It also signals a growing trend of protocols responding to internal misconduct with transparency and corrective financial action.
- Movement Network’s $38 million buyback initiative is one of the largest publicly disclosed remediation plans linked to token market manipulation by a third-party service provider.
Who Said What?
- The Foundation stated:
“We chose to work with this market maker as they had already supported projects in the Movement ecosystem. When we found out they were actually acting adversely to the ecosystem, we took action.”
- On Binance’s role:
“Thanks to Binance, we learned that shortly after the $MOVE TGE… the market maker sold a substantial amount of $MOVE without completing meaningful buy orders… This happened against our wishes, without our consent, and was in breach of our agreement.”
- Regarding the buyback:
“All cash proceeds recovered from the Market Maker will be used by the Movement Network Foundation to establish the Movement Strategic Reserve: a 38M $USDT buyback program.”
- Purchased $MOVE will be stored in the following onchain wallet:
0xA14C8e3eBb2Da43d027dC2c1b763387B9D59cACe
- Onchain investigator ZachXBT questioned the Foundation's transparency for not naming the market maker, later identifying it as Web3Port Labs based on information from an investor.
Zooming Out:
- The Movement Network’s decisive action sets a precedent for how Layer 1 ecosystems can respond to internal breaches by third-party service providers.
- With Binance playing a central role in uncovering the misconduct, the case highlights the growing role of centralized exchanges in ecosystem governance and compliance.
- The $38 million buyback not only aims to stabilize the $MOVE market but also reinforces trust in the Movement Network's long-term plans.
- Despite the turbulence, Movement’s leadership emphasized that the network’s core technology, vision, and operations remain unaffected, positioning the protocol to rebound with stronger community backing and more secure liquidity infrastructure.
