Co-founder of Movement Labs, Rushi Manche, has denied any “direct contact” with the Trump-backed DeFi project World Liberty Financial, which acquired MOVE tokens prior to the announcement of the mainnet launch. This was reported by The Block.
According to Arkham Research, World Liberty Financial purchased MOVE tokens via CoW Swap on January 28 at approximately 14:00 UTC—two hours before the announcement of the Movement Network’s opening for developers. The asset became the tenth largest on the Trump project’s balance sheet.
Manche claims he learned of the purchase only in the morning, as the team was focused on the mainnet announcement.
“We are not involved at all. I suppose we would like the MOVE-based asset to be involved in the system, but we have no direct contact with them. I don’t think anything was coordinated,” he stated.
Nevertheless, some observers have suspected the Trump family of insider trading.
Oof, this is NOT a good look
WLFI multisig buys MOVE and then 10 minutes later the press reports the Movement talking to Musk story
Insane crime pic.twitter.com/VZpla6WoOE
— Eric Conner (@econoar) January 28, 2025
“This looks bad. WLFI multisig buys MOVE, and 10 minutes later the press reports the story about Movement talking to [Elon] Musk. Insane crime,” wrote former Ethereum developer Eric Conner on X.
It is not definitively known whether World Liberty had access to confidential information. However, on-chain data suggests some traders appeared to anticipate the announcement. Around 08:30 ET, open interest in MOVE tokens surged from approximately $25 million to $100 million on Binance.
Look at those smart traders anticipating the breaking news an hour before it hits
Very cool! https://t.co/zEO2gErvkP pic.twitter.com/jVAPoEnpJi
— Dan Smith (@smyyguy) January 28, 2025
OI in MOVE on Coinbase increased by 30% before the news was published, with the number of open contracts rising from 44 million to 55 million.
30% increase in OI up to the news drop.
Friends and family black edge. pic.twitter.com/XMJRvaNMpz
— HORSE ?☠️ (@TheFlowHorse) January 28, 2025
In response to the allegations, Manche stated that Movement did not gift tokens to the Trump-linked project. According to him, the developer mainnet was not initially listed on the roadmap.
“We hinted that something exciting would happen this week and posted a picture of a cornucopia, but nothing crazy,” said Manche, referring to the Cornucopia campaign to attract developers to multi-purpose liquidity.
Alongside the announcement, media reported that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk is allegedly exploring the use of the Movement blockchain for organizational purposes.
Manche stated that the 40-person Movement Labs team was not involved in any negotiations with Musk or DOGE.
“I don’t think we are in contact, as far as I know,” he said.
The public mainnet launch of Movement is expected in mid-February, at which point MOVE will be activated as a token for network fee payments.
According to Manche, the project is close to closing a Series B funding round worth $100 million, bringing its valuation to $300 billion.
Back in September 2024, the Trump family launched the World Liberty Financial platform. In the project’s gold paper, the elected U.S. president is listed as the “chief crypto advocate,” and his sons Eric, Barron, and Donald Trump Jr. are Web3 ambassadors.
In November, TRON founder Justin Sun became the largest investor in World Liberty Financial after purchasing 2 billion WLFI tokens for $30 million.