Movement Labs has terminated co-founder Rushi Manche in light of a recent market maker scandal and rebranded itself as Move Industries. The protocol will be led by Torab Torabi as the new CEO.
On May 7, the network announced that it has terminated co-founder Rushi Manche and will proceed under a new leadership structure.
“Details on leadership changes and a revamped governance structure will be coming soon,” said the protocol in an official post.
Not long after, a new account emerged called The Movement (MOVE). It informed traders that the protocol has relaunched itself as Move Industries, a self-dubbed “new company” under a new leadership structure.
Additionally, co-founder Cooper Scanlon has voluntarily stepped down as CEO. Therefore, Move Industries will be helmed by Torab Torabi as its CEO and ecosystem architect alongside Will Gaines, who will serve as President and Chief Marketing Officer.
“This next chapter will ensure we continue building world-class infrastructure, world-class businesses and a world-class movement,” said Gaines in an official press release.
Torabi views Move Industries as “the beginning of an exciting new chapter for the Movement” and vows to fully commit to improve the ecosystem, strengthening the community and supporting projects built on the network.
Moving forward, the protocol plans to focus on technology and community as its “north stars,” as well as promising more transparent town halls and improved vetting and verifying systems.
However, it appears the network’s recent restructuring has done little to save its native token, MOVE, from the inevitable tumble it has taken since market making allegations erupted. At press time, MOVE has gone down nearly 10% in the past 24 hours. It is currently trading hands at $0.16.
In the past week, the token has plummeted more than 34%. In contrast, its daily trading volume has seen an exponential rise, having gone up by 141.4% compared to the previous trading day, indicating more market activity amidst the restructuring notice.
What happened to Movement Labs’ Rushi Manche?
Earlier this month, the protocol declared that it would be suspending co-founder Rushi Manche in light of a recent scandal involving one of its market makers, Rentech. This led to to the token being delisted from Coinbase, effectively suspending all related trading pairs.
At the time, the protocol was still undergoing investigations from third-party reviewer Groom Lake “regarding organizational governance and recent incidents involving a market maker.”
The token dump occurred December last year, when Rentech allegedly sold 66 million MOVE for an estimated profit of 38 million USDT (USDT). Binance reported the issue in March, freezing the money and notifying the Movement Foundation and Movement Labs.
Since then, the protocol has cut off all ties with the market maker and pledged a $38 million USDT buyback through a new reserve fund.
