What You Need to Know

• Leaked agreements indicate that Movement Labs provided memos offering advisers up to 10% of the MOVE token supply.
• The startup, which has faced scandal and is backed by Donald Trump’s financial group, didn’t disclose these agreements to investors or publicly.
• Movement Labs claims the agreements were non-binding. However, one adviser referred to internally as a “shadow co-founder” is now considering legal action to secure tokens valued at over $50 million.
• These findings further complicate the fallout from Movement’s previous scandal involving market-making, resulting in discord among the co-founders.

Movement Labs has quietly allocated significant portions of its tokens to early insiders, raising concerns about internal governance and transparency amidst allegations of non-disclosure.

Additional Points

Two business memos acquired by CoinDesk — including one nearly promising an adviser $2 million annually — illustrate how extensively Movement endeavored to harness advisers for establishing its market presence in the crypto realm. Despite claiming that these contracts were not binding, the existence of such agreements provides insight into the troubling operations within Movement.

Informal Agreements

These informal agreements mirror wider patterns in the crypto industry, where considerable funding arrangements can be established without being disclosed in public fundraising documents. The implications of such secretive deals can substantially influence the direction of an entire token ecosystem, often unbeknownst to investors and community stakeholders.

As the tensions between co-founders intensify, with Scanlon stepping back from his CEO position and Manche recently ousted, the situation draws scrutiny in an industry that previously viewed Movement Labs as a potential leader.