Scandal in This Altcoin: Tokens Distributed Through Secret Agreements – Price Reacts
By: cryptonews|2025/05/16 01:15:05
0
Share
It has been revealed that Movement Labs, a cryptocurrency startup funded by Donald Trump-backed World Liberty Financial and recently in the news with scandals, secretly allocated a significant portion of MOVE tokens to some early-stage advisors. Leaked internal documents have raised serious questions about the balance of power within the company over these deals that were kept secret from investors. Even before the token was launched, it was learned that Movement Labs allocated a large portion of the MOVE supply to a small number of advisors, and these agreements were not disclosed to investors. In two separate business memos written by the company's founders in 2023, it is seen that a single advisor was offered approximately $ 2 million worth of tokens annually. Although the company claims that these agreements are not binding and are made for exploratory purposes, the existence of the documents reveals the chaos in the company's internal workings. Following the developments, co-founder Rushi Manche was fired from the company this month, while fellow co-founder Cooper Scanlon stepped down as CEO but remained with the company. “When we founded the company, I was CTO and led the engineering team. I left most of the business deals to Cooper,” Manche said in a statement. Among the names mentioned in the leaked documents are Zebec Protocol CEO Sam Thapaliya and Vinit Parekh. Both men played an influential role behind the scenes in the company’s early strategies. According to insiders, the two men were given access to up to 10% of the total MOVE supply through secret memorandums of understanding signed between them. Thapaliya was “lent” 5% of the MOVE supply for market making and marketing activities, while another deal allocated an additional 2.5%. The current value of this amount exceeds $50 million. While Movement Labs claims that these agreements are not binding, Thapaliya denied this claim and stated that he will take legal action: “These agreements were never invalidated. I will legally claim my right to 2.5% tokens.” *This is not investment advice.
You may also like

Ten Thousand Words Interpretation of STRC: Strategy for Making Money to Buy Coins New Magic
The real momentum of the BTC rebound - for every 1 dollar of STRC issued, there corresponds 3 dollars of BTC buying.

What competitive advantages are still defensible in the AI era?
Based on the signals received, determine the direction, and act immediately

For Whom the Bell Tolls, For Whom the Lobster Feeds? A Dark Forest Survival Guide for the 2026 Agent Player
If an AI has read Machiavelli and is much smarter than us, they would be very good at manipulating us — and you wouldn't even realize what's happening.

Circle CEO's Latest Interview: Stablecoins Are Not Cryptocurrency
The true meaning of a stablecoin is to turn the US dollar into an internet-native currency and eventually create an internet financial platform

Deconstructing the Public Chain Pharos Capital Game: Is a $950 million valuation supported by assets like photovoltaics just a shell transaction under layers of betting?
When a physical industry company injects physical assets into a Layer 1 project, it can easily create a valuation of 950 million dollars by calculating several times the value of the physical assets. Is this kind of capital game too outrageous? Does the crypto market really need such RWAs?

a16z: AI is making everyone 10x more productive, but the true winner has yet to emerge
Institutional AI and Retail AI "Better Integration" is an Inevitable Trend.

Why did the star Web3 project Across Protocol choose to abandon DAO?
The proposal for Across to privatize itself is a rare move, but it comes at a time when the industry is beginning to recognize that DAOs are a difficult organizational structure to operate.

In fact, ETH scaling is a major benefit for L2
ETH has finally admitted defeat—its Rollup-centric roadmap is unworkable, while the monolithic scaling solutions adopted by blockchains like Solana have proven to be correct.

Memories: 10 Key Contributions of the TON Core Team That Few People Knew in the Early Days
Every line of code, every tool we build, every sleepless night spent maintaining the network—these efforts have laid the foundation for TON's development today.

2025 South Korea CEX Listing Post-Mortem: Investing in New Coins = 70% Loss?
The 2025 South Korean exchange's new token listing performance is structurally similar to Binance's, with no significant differences.

BIP-360 Analysis: Bitcoin's First Step Towards Quantum Immunity, But Why Only the "First Step"?
This article explains how BIP-360 reshapes Bitcoin's quantum defense strategy, analyzes its enhancements, and discusses why it has not yet achieved full post-quantum security.

50 million USDT exchanged for 35,000 USD AAVE: How did the disaster happen? Who should we blame?
Due to a fatal flaw in the transaction path, a $50 million DeFi operation was executed with almost zero protection, resulting in nearly the entire amount of funds evaporating in a tiny liquidity pool.

The Cryptographic Past of the Middle East
Reality is often more exciting than fiction.

Resolving the Intergenerational Prisoner's Dilemma: The Inevitable Path of Nomadic Capital Bitcoin
When the baby boomer generation collectively sells off, who will become the "greater fool" in the next round of asset crashes?

Who Will Control AI? Why Decentralized AI May Be the Only Alternative to Government and Big Tech
AI has become critical infrastructure, and governments and corporations are competing to control it. Centralized development and regulation are entrenching existing power structures. The Web3 community is building a decentralized alternative — distributed compute, token incentives, and community governance — before that window closes.

Vitalik wrote a proposal teaching you how to secretly use AI large models
Vitalik believes that in the AI era, users should not have to give up their identity to use an AI tool.

On the eve of the explosion of on-chain options
Options are becoming a new anchor in the cryptocurrency market.

WEEX AI Hackathon: How Did This AI Trading Winner Succeed?
A self-taught AI trading enthusiast achieved top-10 results at the WEEX AI Hackathon. Learn about the mindset, AI tools, and lessons behind this impressive performance.
Ten Thousand Words Interpretation of STRC: Strategy for Making Money to Buy Coins New Magic
The real momentum of the BTC rebound - for every 1 dollar of STRC issued, there corresponds 3 dollars of BTC buying.
What competitive advantages are still defensible in the AI era?
Based on the signals received, determine the direction, and act immediately
For Whom the Bell Tolls, For Whom the Lobster Feeds? A Dark Forest Survival Guide for the 2026 Agent Player
If an AI has read Machiavelli and is much smarter than us, they would be very good at manipulating us — and you wouldn't even realize what's happening.
Circle CEO's Latest Interview: Stablecoins Are Not Cryptocurrency
The true meaning of a stablecoin is to turn the US dollar into an internet-native currency and eventually create an internet financial platform
Deconstructing the Public Chain Pharos Capital Game: Is a $950 million valuation supported by assets like photovoltaics just a shell transaction under layers of betting?
When a physical industry company injects physical assets into a Layer 1 project, it can easily create a valuation of 950 million dollars by calculating several times the value of the physical assets. Is this kind of capital game too outrageous? Does the crypto market really need such RWAs?
a16z: AI is making everyone 10x more productive, but the true winner has yet to emerge
Institutional AI and Retail AI "Better Integration" is an Inevitable Trend.