MOVE price crashes to all-time low after market maker scandal

MOVE price has dropped 28% in the past week and is currently trading at just 4% above its all-time low amid an ongoing third-party investigation into suspicious market maker activity involving the token on Binance.

Movement Labs (MOVE) has recently launched a third-party investigation into market maker misconduct involving the MOVE token, following Binance’s discovery that an undisclosed market maker had dumped 66 million MOVE tokens shortly after launch while placing minimal buy-side orders. In response, Binance delisted the market maker and froze millions of dollars in suspected profits to potentially compensate affected users.

Speaking to Blockworks, a Movement Labs spokesperson stated:

“Movement Network Foundation is conducting a third-party review following recent market maker abnormalities — a standard best practice to ensure full transparency and accountability. It would be inappropriate to speculate on the outcome of the review or any actions that may or may not result. Operations continue normally as the review is conducted.” 

Though Movement Labs refused to disclose the market maker involved, on-chain investigator ZachXBT reported being informed that the entity was connected to Web3Port. A review by Blockworks also noted that Web3Port had interacted with Movement Labs’ social media content in recent months.

The Movement Network Foundation was informed by Binance of market maker irregularities involving the MOVE token on March 24. Interestingly, MOVE surged the next day, climbing from an opening price of $0.421470 to close at $0.553776 on March 25 — as evidenced by a bullish marubozu candle that broke above both the 20-day EMA and 50-day SMA on the daily chart. After that, MOVE has plunged into a sharp downtrend, crashing to an all-time low of $0.2301 on April 17 before seeing a modest rebound to around $0.24021 at press time.