How MOVE’s Contracts Put a Pump and Dump Into a Legal Agreement - Ep. 828

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2025

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The MOVE token collapse sparked one of the most damning investigations in the industry this year. In this episode of Unchained, investigative journalist Sam Kessler joins Laura Shin to walk through the contracts, questionable market-making deals, and finger pointing inside Movement Labs. From Binance’s ban to a Trump-affiliated crypto deal, this story unearths how the MOVE token collapse was the product of what looks like a pump-and-dump plan written out in legal contracts. Plus: How insiders structured deals to profit from artificial price spikes How this could have happened with a project backed by some of crypto’s most reputable VCs What this saga says about token launches, regulation, and market integrity And whether Movement Labs can (or should) be trusted to investigate itself Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com FalconX Bitkey: Use code UNCHAINED for 20% off Mantle Sam Kessler, Deputy Managing Editor for Tech and Protocols at CoinDesk CoinDesk: Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen Trading for MOVE will be suspended on Coinbase Timestamps: 👋 0:00 Introduction 🕵️‍♀️ 1:52 Initial details of the scandal ⚖️ 6:20 Conflicts of interest at Movement Labs and who knew what 💥 8:42 Why 5% of tokens = 50% of supply and why that’s wild 🧾 13:14 How a lawyer called the deal “the worst agreement I’ve ever seen” 🚫 18:41 Why Binance banned Web3Port after suspicious trading 🧩 20:38 The web of key players: founders, shadow advisors, and middlemen 🧠 25:51 A theory on treasury selling and token price manipulation 🔍 27:49 Can Movement Labs investigate itself, and will anyone trust the outcome? 📉 29:39 Why Coinbase is suspending MOVE and what that signals 🇺🇸 30:47 How Trump’s crypto arm is tangled up in the MOVE ecosystem 📰34:15 News Recap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Insane, insane. Everybody I spoke to was amazed because you get rumors about this sort of a thing happening.
0:06.0	But to my knowledge, this is the first time I've seen it, you know, actually written out on a contract, you know, for the public to see that it's not just that people are like shadily, you know, selling tokens behind the scenes. They're making deals.
0:20.0	Hi, everyone. selling tokens behind the scenes. They're making deals.
0:28.2	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host,
0:33.4	Laura Shin. Every episode, we feature listener comments. Today we have some responding to my recent interview with Jeff Park and Mark Palmer on the launch of 21 Capital.
0:38.4	On YouTube, 914 says, quote, it's going up forever, Laura.
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0:55.0	This is the May 2nd, 2025 episode of Unchained.
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