Rushikesh Manche Files Lawsuit Against Movement Labs
Rushikesh Manche, one of the co-founders of crypto infrastructure startup Movement Labs, has taken legal action against the company by filing a lawsuit on July 9 in Delaware’s Court of Chancery. This comes two months after his termination from the company.
The case, titled Manche v. Mvmt Labs Inc., is seeking a declaratory judgment under corporation law. This legal action is commonly used to determine the rights or obligations of parties involved in a dispute. Manche is being represented by the law firm Ballard Spahr, with attorney David J. Margules listed on the docket. Chancellor Paul A. Fioravanti Jr. of the Delaware Court of Chancery is currently assigned to the case.
Response from Movement Labs
Despite the legal action taken by Manche, a spokesperson for Movement Labs has stated that the firm has “no comment” on the matter. Manche himself has not responded to requests for comment from The Defiant.
Hefty Funding Rounds and Growth
Movements Labs was founded in 2022 by Rushikesh Manche, Cooper Scanlon, and other early contributors. The company’s goal was to integrate the Move virtual machine into Ethereum environments. In early 2024, Movement Labs gained prominence after securing significant funding and launching ecosystem tools aimed at bringing Move’s safety guarantees to EVM chains.
With approximately $41.4 million raised to date, including a $3.4 million pre-seed round in 2023 and a substantial $38 million Series A led by Polychain Capital in April 2024, Movement Labs has been on a trajectory of growth. Reports suggest that the company was in the process of preparing for a $100 million Series B round at a projected valuation of $3 billion in January.
Controversy Surrounding MOVE Token Sale
However, tensions arose in April when a CoinDesk investigation linked Manche to a market-making agreement that granted Web3Port, through an entity named Rentech, access to 66 million MOVE tokens, accounting for approximately 5% of the token supply. The swift sale of these tokens resulted in a price crash and raised concerns regarding undisclosed arrangements and governance controls.
Following these events, Movement Labs suspended Manche on May 2 pending a third-party governance review by Groom Lake. On May 7, the board officially terminated him, citing his involvement in an undisclosed market-making arrangement with MOVE tokens.