The Movement Network Foundation will execute a three-month buyback of MOVE tokens, utilizing $38 million recovered from a market maker. This decision follows an incident where the market maker, tasked with providing liquidity for the MOVE token on Binance, allegedly engaged in misconduct after the token's listing. The organization has cut ties with Movement Strategic Reserve who coordinated the incident.
At the center of that effort was Binance. The exchange acted quickly and determined the market maker’s gains. Almost immediately, they froze the $38 million in Tether (USDT) that this market maker had accumulated from their trading activities. Binance then notified the Movement Network Foundation of the breach. In response, they started an internal investigation into one employee of their Binance Wallet team, after a whistleblower raised a complaint that the employee committed front-running trades.
Market Maker Misconduct and Binance's Response
The vertical slice saw market maker, Jump Trading supply the buy and sell liquidity for all Movement (MOVE) token orders on Binance Exchange. Soon after the token was listed, they sold 66 million MOVE tokens on the open market. Things started getting really suspicious when the market maker would put “little” in buy orders, which made it look like they hacked their trading program. Binance's swift action to freeze the market maker's profits and alert the Movement Network Foundation demonstrates the exchange's commitment to market integrity.
Additionally, just this past week Binance offboarded market makers for the projects GoPlus Security and MyShell. This decision is a further reflection of Binance’s commitment to helping create and facilitate responsible market-making practices on its platform. The investigation into the Binance Wallet team member further underscores the exchange's dedication to addressing potential misconduct within its own ranks.
Token Buyback and Future Plans
The Movement Network Foundation's decision to use the recovered $38 million for a token buyback aims to stabilize the MOVE token's market value and restore confidence among investors. In addition, for the next three months, the foundation will aggressively re-buy MOVE tokens. The acquired MOVE tokens will be gradually moved to Movement Strategic Reserve.
This buyback program is a concrete first step towards making right the damage incurred by the market maker’s actions. Read more about how this action illustrates Movement Network’s commitment to protecting its token holders. Through it, it wants to encourage a vibrant, healthy trading ecosystem for MOVE.
