Is Movement Safe?
Risk Grade: C (45/100)
Movement is rated as elevated risk — multiple novel mechanisms and notable interaction risks.
Elevated risk — market maker scandal, co-founder suspension, Coinbase delisting, and organizational restructuring create serious governance concerns on top of a centralized L2 with a novel unproven execution layer.
Movement is a Move language-based Ethereum Layer 2 (now pivoting toward L1) that launched its mainnet in December 2024 with the MEVM hybrid execution environment. The project has approximately $50M in TVL and raised $141M in funding. Its C- grade is driven primarily by a serious governance crisis: a market maker scandal in 2025 resulted in co-founder Rushi Manche's suspension, Coinbase delisting the MOVE token, a company rebrand to Move Industries, and an 80%+ token price decline from all-time highs. The centralized sequencer with no forced-inclusion mechanism, novel MEVM execution layer with limited production history, and ongoing organizational instability compound the risk profile.
TVL
$50M
Mechanisms
6
Interactions
5
Value Grade
D-
Key Risks for Movement Users
In 2025, a market maker scandal revealed that an obscure middleman was granted control of 66 million MOVE tokens through a deal that experts said incentivized pump-and-dump behavior, resulting in a $38M selloff. Co-founder Rushi Manche was suspended, and Coinbase delisted the MOVE token citing failure to meet listing standards.
The centralized sequencer has no forced-inclusion mechanism. If the operator goes offline, users cannot exit the system or process transactions through any alternative path. Given the organizational instability, this liveness dependency is particularly concerning.
Movement operates a novel MEVM (Move + EVM) hybrid execution environment with limited production history since its December 2024 mainnet launch. Novel execution layers have historically been sources of critical vulnerabilities due to untested edge cases.
Monthly token unlocks of approximately 170 million MOVE (5-6% of circulating supply) create persistent sell pressure. With 40% of tokens allocated to team and investors, insider selling could continue depressing token value for years.
Top Risk Factors
- •Movement Labs experienced a major market maker scandal in 2025: an obscure middleman (Rentech) was granted control of 66 million MOVE tokens through a deal that experts said incentivized pump-and-dump behavior, resulting in a $38M token dump shortly after launch. Co-founder Rushi Manche was suspended, and the company rebranded as Move Industries.
- •Coinbase delisted MOVE in May 2025 due to failure to meet listing standards, sending the token to all-time lows and signaling severe concerns about the project's governance and tokenomics from a major exchange.
- •Movement operates with a centralized sequencer and proposer with no permissionless fraud proofs or forced-inclusion mechanism. Users must trust the operator to process transactions honestly and maintain liveness, with no independent exit mechanism.
- •The project has pivoted from an Ethereum L2 to a standalone L1 strategy, creating uncertainty about the long-term architecture. Multiple rebrands (Movement Labs to Move Industries) and leadership changes signal organizational instability.
Risk Score Breakdown
Movement's highest risk area is Regulatory Risk (8/10). Here's how each dimension contributes to the overall 45/100 score:
Read the Full Movement Risk Report
This protocol has 2 collapse scenarios. 2 high-severity interaction risks identified. See the full mechanism classification, interaction matrix, and deep-dive recommendations.
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