Movement Plunges to All-Time Low After Coinbase Says It Will Delist Ethereum L2 Token

MOVE, the native token of Ethereum layer-2 network Movement, crashed to an all-time low price on Thursday after major cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said that it will suspend trading for the token this month.

“We regularly monitor the assets on our exchange to ensure they meet our listing standards. Based on recent reviews, we will suspend trading for Movement (MOVE) on May 15, 2025, on or around 2 PM ET,” the exchange said on X, formerly Twitter.

MOVE is down nearly 14% on the day to a price of $0.2079, according to CoinGecko, marking the lowest price to date registered by the crypto data provider. The Movement token launched in December alongside the debut of the project’s mainnet beta.

Movement Labs and the Movement Network Foundation did not immediately respond to Decrypt, while a Coinbase spokesperson said the exchange has nothing to add beyond its suspension statement released on Thursday.

Coinbase’s notice follows a report from CoinDesk earlier this week, in which the publication reported that Movement Labs, the project’s maker, is conducting an internal investigation. The company suspects it may have been deceived into signing a market-making agreement that ultimately led to 66 million MOVE tokens being sold on the open market.

Market makers facilitate liquidity in a market by continuously placing buy and sell orders for an asset, enabling buyers and sellers to execute trades at any time. The firm that Movement engaged, Rentech, denied allegations of engaging in misrepresentation.

While Binance did not explicitly name Rentech, the exchange notified users in late March that it had offboarded a market maker from its platform due to "misconduct," which involved selling 66 million MOVE tokens in December while placing “little buy orders.”

Binance said the market maker profited $38 million before it was removed from the exchange’s platform last month. The company is banned moving forward, Binance said, adding that its profits had been frozen “for the purpose of compensating users.”

Following the controversy, the Movement Network Foundation said it would use those funds to facilitate a buyback program and “establish the Movement Strategic Reserve.” In January, MOVE’s price spiked after the DeFi platform World Liberty Financial, which is affiliated with U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his family, bought $1.9 million of the token.

Within Movement’s official Telegram channel, members were aghast at the token’s scheduled suspension on Coinbase, wondering if the token’s team “will recover from this blow.”

Ali Hosseini, a community manager for Movement, argued that a suspension is not necessarily the same as a delisting, adding that Movement Labs is assessing its options.

“No delist [...] Only trading will be suspended,” he wrote. “The team is actively working to negotiate with Coinbase and resolve the issues.”

Editor's note: This story was updated after publication to add further details.

Edited by Andrew Hayward