Movement Labs files for Chapter 11 months after token scandal

Movement Labs files for Chapter 11 months after token scandal

Policy

Movement Labs files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy months after token scandal

The filing comes after months of upheaval that included a controversial market-making agreement, an internal investigation into its MOVE token launch and a Binance ban tied to its market maker.

By

Helene Braun

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AI Boost

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Edited by

Nikhilesh De

Updated

Jul 21, 2026, 6:27 p.m.

Published

Jul 21, 2026, 5:54 p.m.

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Movement Labs, the developer of the Movement blockchain, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The project came under scrutiny after a market-making deal enabled the rapid sale of 66 million MOVE tokens, triggering a steep price drop and prompting investigations and a token buyback.

Movement Labs, the developer behind the Movement blockchain,

has filed

for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, marking the latest setback for a crypto project that has spent much of the past year navigating governance disputes, a token market-making controversy and a failed strategic reset.

The company said in a bankruptcy filing that it had under 1,000 creditors, somewhere between $100,000 and $500,000 in assets and north of $1 million in liabilities. Its largest creditors include co-founder Rushi Manche, the Delaware Division of Revenue, Anchorage Digital and other entities.

The filing follows months of turmoil for Movement, an Ethereum layer-2 network built using the Move programming language, which was originally developed at Meta. The project launched with the goal of bringing Move-based smart contracts to Ethereum (ETH) while offering faster and cheaper transactions through a scaling network.

Its troubles began shortly after the December launch of the MOVE token.

An April 2025

CoinDesk investigation

found that Movement was examining whether it had been misled into signing a market-making agreement that handed a single counterparty unusual influence over MOVE's circulating supply. Internal documents reviewed by CoinDesk at the time showed the arrangement allowed 66 million MOVE tokens to be sold into the market one day after the token debuted, contributing to a sharp decline in price.

The controversy centered on Rentech, a little-known intermediary that appeared in contracts connected to Chinese market maker Web3Port. According to documents obtained by CoinDesk, Movement executives later questioned whether the foundation believed Rentech was affiliated with Web3Port when it was not. Rentech has denied any wrongdoing or misrepresentation.

The fallout extended beyond Movement. Binance banned the market-making account involved in the token launch for what it described as misconduct, while Movement launched a token buyback program and hired outside firm Groom Lake to review the events surrounding the deal.

Movement Labs and co-founder Rushi Manche

separated

in May 2025.

More recently, the company attempted to chart a new course.

In June, Move Industries, a separate legal entity from MVMT Labs, the company that filed for bankruptcy, announced it would

pivot away

from competing with other Ethereum scaling networks and instead focus on cross-border payments, remittances and stablecoin settlement. The company said it had secured access to licensed payment infrastructure in the U.S., Canada and the European Union as it sought to build services aimed at emerging markets.

The strategy reflected a wider trend across the crowded layer-2 sector, where blockchain projects have increasingly shifted toward real-world financial applications as competition among scaling networks has intensified.

UPDATE (July 21, 2026, 17:58 UTC):

Adds additional detail.

CORRECTION (July 21, 2026, 18:26 UTC):

Corrects that Move Industries and not Movement Labs pivoted from Ethereum scaling.

AI Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to

our standards

.

For more information, see

CoinDesk's full AI Policy

.

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