Movement Labs Files for Bankruptcy After MOVE Token Collapse
The firm behind the failed MOVE token filed for Chapter 11 in Delaware, with up to $10 million in liabilities and its ousted co-founder as top creditor.
Movement Labs, the company behind the MOVE token, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware on July 15, according to court records made public on July 21. The filing lists assets of between $100,000 and $500,000 against liabilities of up to $10 million, with as many as 299 creditors. That is a thin balance sheet for a project that raised tens of millions of dollars. It is also a quiet ending for one of last year's most hyped token launches, one that curdled into a fraud scandal within a day of going live.
Who is owed money
The biggest unsecured creditor is co-founder Luc Manche, with claims topping $1.6 million. Manche holds 34.25% of the company and has beaten it in court before. After his dismissal, a Delaware Chancery Court case won him reimbursement for legal costs tied to a U.S. Department of Justice grand jury investigation. Behind him sits the Delaware Division of Revenue, owed roughly $459,000. Custody firm Anchorage Digital and auditor OtterSec appear on the list too, as does Move Industries, the entity that now controls the code.
The launch that broke MOVE
The trouble started almost immediately. Movement built a Move-based Ethereum Layer 2 and raised a $38 million Series A led by Polychain in April 2024. Then, in December 2024, it shipped the MOVE token. A market-making contract had handed an obscure intermediary called Rentec control of 66 million tokens, roughly 5% of the supply. Rentec sold them off the day after issuance. The price cratered. Binance and Coinbase suspended MOVE trading.
CoinDesk later reported that Rentec was linked to the Chinese market maker Web3Port through related contracts. The Movement Foundation said it had no knowledge of the connection between the two. Rentec denied any wrongdoing or misrepresentation.
Where the code went
Movement Labs dismissed Manche in May 2025 and handed core development to Move Industries, a separate company run by Trab Travi. A month later, Move Industries quit the Layer 2 race altogether. It pitched an independent Layer 1 built for cross-border remittances and stablecoin payments in emerging markets, claiming access to payment rails already approved in the U.S., Canada, and the European Union. Travi wants distance from the wreckage. On July 21 he said Move Industries has nothing to do with the bankruptcy filing.
Sources
- Movement Labs Files for Bankruptcy Amid MOVE Token Fraud Issues
- Investigation linking Rentec to market maker Web3Port · CoinDesk
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