Prior to Rushi Manche’s removal from Movement Labs, the cryptocurrency infrastructure startup he co-founded with fellow Vanderbilt University dropout Cooper Scanlon, he was recognized as a prominent rising figure in the DeFi space.
This piece is a segment of CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2025 list.
However, in April 2025, the highly publicized project became embroiled in controversy regarding undisclosed market-making arrangements linked to MOVE’s token launch. Internal documents revealed by CoinDesk indicated that Movement Labs, under Manche’s management, had entered into a controversial agreement with a lesser-known intermediary company, Rentech, which acted simultaneously as a purported subsidiary of the listed market-maker Web3Port and an agent for the project. This arrangement allowed Rentech to control approximately 66 million MOVE tokens —around 5% of the total supply —which were swiftly sold off in the market.
The sale triggered an immediate and significant drop in MOVE’s price, provoking widespread investor backlash. As scrutiny mounted, major exchanges, including Coinbase, either suspended or delisted the token. A few days following the unveiling of the initial scandal, Movement Labs placed Manche on suspension, pending a third-party governance review. Shortly thereafter, the company announced Manche’s termination.
This scandal prompted a shake-up in leadership, damaged the project’s reputation, and resulted in a considerable decline in token value. Furthermore, it raised industry-wide concerns regarding opaque token distributions and the risks of insider trading, leading exchanges, investors, and regulators to heighten their scrutiny of early-stage token agreements throughout the cryptocurrency landscape.
Read more: Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen
