Binance Ejects Market Maker Amid MOVE Token Misconduct

$38M Token Dump Triggers Foundation-Led Buyback

Binance has offboarded a market maker tied to the Movement (MOVE) token following the discovery of suspicious trading activity, the exchange confirmed. The decision, effective March 18, 2025, comes after internal reviews revealed that the entity, which had been previously linked to another delisted party, exploited its market-making role to offload tens of millions of tokens in a manner that violated Binance’s trading conduct guidelines.

The trading activity took place on December 10, 2024, a day after the MOVE token debuted on the platform. The market maker reportedly dumped around 66 million MOVE tokens into the market, offering little in the way of buy-side support. This aggressive and lopsided strategy netted the actor $38 million USDT in profit before Binance intervened and froze the proceeds. The exchange has since blocked the market maker from engaging in any further activity on its platform and has notified both Movement Labs and the Movement Foundation about the breach.

Binance described the behavior as “market irregularities” and reiterated the responsibilities of authorized market makers, which include maintaining balanced bid and ask orders, ensuring adequate order depth, and avoiding disruptive tactics such as excessive high-frequency order placement and cancellations. This isn’t the first recent disciplinary action by the exchange; on March 9, Binance removed market makers from GoPlus Security and MyShell for similar misconduct, confiscating proceeds and initiating steps for user compensation.

In response to the incident, the Movement Network Foundation unveiled a $38 million USDT buyback initiative funded by the frozen profits. The program, dubbed the Movement Strategic Reserve, will span three months and focus on repurchasing MOVE tokens to reintroduce USDT liquidity into the ecosystem. The Foundation emphasized that all recovered funds would be allocated exclusively for long-term token acquisition and ecosystem restoration. “All cash proceeds recovered from the Market Maker will be used by the Movement Network Foundation to establish the Movement Strategic Reserve,” it stated.

MOVE reached an all-time high of over $1.45 on its launch day but has since dropped by 70% from that peak. Following Binance's announcement, the price rebounded by over 6% to $0.453.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.