- Movement Foundation terminated its partnership with a market maker for breaching their agreement.
- An unnamed market maker sold 66 million MOVE shortly after Movement’s token generation event in December.
- Movement announced a $38 million buyback program for the MOVE token.
Movement Network Foundation, the organization supporting the Move Virtual Machine ecosystem, has severed ties with an unnamed market maker following a breach of trust and contract. In addition to ending the relationship, the foundation announced a $38 million buyback program for its native token, MOVE.
News of the enforcement and the buyback helped MOVE rebound over the past 24 hours. At the time of writing, MOVE is up about 7% and reached a high of $0.47 on major exchanges.
What happened?
The Movement Network Foundation’s statement follows a related update from Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume. Both Binance and Movement say the unnamed market maker violated agreed terms and appears to be linked to a prior entity that Binance removed for misconduct.
According to Binance, the market maker sold 66 million MOVE tokens just one day after the token’s exchange listing on December 10, 2024. The entity reportedly realized a net gain of $38 million in USDT before Binance ended the relationship on March 18, 2025.
Movement Foundation detailed the incident on its blog: “Thanks to Binance, we learned that shortly after the $MOVE TGE in December 2024, the MOVE market maker, without our consent, placed and completed a significant sell order. This action violated our agreement, which required the market maker to provide two-sided liquidity for the $MOVE/$USDT pair.”
Recovered $38 million to fund MOVE buyback program
Movement Labs, Movement Foundation and Binance have since coordinated a remediation plan that is now underway. The recovered proceeds amount to $38 million, and Movement Network Foundation has committed those funds to a buyback program.
“All cash proceeds recovered from the market maker will be used by Movement Network Foundation to establish a strategic reserve: a $38 million buyback program to purchase $MOVE for long-term use and to return USDT liquidity to the Movement ecosystem,” the foundation said.
The buyback program will run over the next three months and will involve open-market purchases of MOVE, with those purchases executed on Binance. Given MOVE’s strong traction within the MoveVM ecosystem, a successful buyback could provide bullish support for the token.
When MOVE debuted, it briefly traded as high as $1.45. It currently remains well below that peak—about 69% lower—after broader cryptocurrency market declines added selling pressure.