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Binance has frozen $38 million from a market maker who sold 66 million Movement (MOVE) tokens without proper buy orders, the cryptocurrency exchange announced on March 25, 2025.
The market maker sold the tokens on December 10, 2024, just one day after the token’s listing. This action broke Binance’s rules that require traders to maintain balanced buy and sell orders. After a three-month investigation, Binance banned the market maker permanently on March 18.
“Any project-authorized market makers who do not comply with or breach such principles and rules, Binance will take further actions against such market makers to best protect our users,” Binance stated in its announcement.
The Movement Network Foundation says it was unaware of the market maker’s actions until Binance told them on March 11, 2025.
“[We] had absolutely no knowledge that this was happening,” the Movement Network Foundation stated. “This happened against our wishes, without our consent, and was in breach of our agreement, which required the MM to provide liquidity on both sides of the $MOVE/$USDT pair.”
In response, Movement Network has promised a $38 million buyback program using the recovered funds. The buyback will happen only on Binance over the next three months. The purchased tokens will go to a strategic reserve wallet.
The incident raises concerns about market manipulation in crypto trading. Market makers should provide liquidity by placing both buy and sell orders to create a stable trading environment.
Binance listed four main rules for market makers: they must place both buy and sell orders, ensure there are enough orders of sufficient size, maintain stable price spreads, and avoid disrupting the market with too many quick order placements or cancellations.
This action against the MOVE market maker comes as Binance also handles another problem. The exchange recently suspended an employee for allegedly using insider information from a previous job at BNB Chain to profit from a token launch.
Despite these issues, big investors still trust Binance. The exchange recently received a $2 billion investment from MGX, an Abu Dhabi-based technology investor.
For MOVE token holders, the planned buyback may help stabilize the token’s price, which has fallen since early 2025. The Movement Network, which works with Ethereum-compatible technology, still has strong support from investors, including Polychain Capital and Binance Labs.
The company stated that its technology and vision remain unchanged despite this incident.
