Movement Labs Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy

MVMT Labs, Inc., the developer behind the Movement blockchain, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on July 15, according to the court docket.

The voluntary petition, docketed as case number 26-11113 and assigned to Judge Thomas M. Horan, lists assets of between $100,001 and $1 million, liabilities of between $1 million and $10 million, and 200 to 999 creditors. The San Francisco-based company filed under Subchapter V, the streamlined small-business track of Chapter 11, and is represented by Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP.

A meeting of creditors is scheduled for Aug. 20, and the deadline for filing proofs of claim is Sept. 14, the docket shows. Chapter 11 allows a company to continue operating while it restructures its debts under court supervision.

The filing was first reported by CoinDesk, which said the company's largest creditors include co-founder Rushi Manche, the Delaware Division of Revenue and crypto custodian Anchorage Digital.

From Meta's Move Language to Delaware Court

Movement launched as an Ethereum layer 2 built with Move, the programming language originally developed at Meta for its shelved Diem project. The network aimed to bring Move-based smart contracts to Ethereum while offering faster and cheaper transactions.

Its troubles began shortly after the December 2024 launch of the MOVE token. An April 2025 CoinDesk investigation reported that Movement was examining whether it had been misled into signing a market-making agreement that gave a single counterparty outsized influence over MOVE's circulating supply. Internal documents reviewed by the outlet showed the arrangement allowed 66 million MOVE tokens to be sold into the market one day after the token debuted, contributing to a sharp price decline.

The documents centered on Rentech, an intermediary that appeared in contracts connected to Chinese market maker Web3Port. Rentech has denied any wrongdoing or misrepresentation.

Binance banned the market-making account tied to the launch for what it described as misconduct. Movement launched a token buyback program and hired investigations firm Groom Lake to review the deal.

Movement Labs and Manche separated in May 2025. Manche later sued the startup in Delaware, as The Defiant reported.

A Pivot That Preceded the Filing

In June, the project said it would pivot away from competing with other Ethereum scaling networks and instead focus on cross-border payments, remittances and stablecoin settlement. The company said it had secured access to licensed payment infrastructure in the United States, Canada and the European Union.

The shift mirrored a broader trend in the crowded layer-2 sector, where projects have increasingly moved toward real-world payments as competition among scaling networks intensified.

It is not yet clear how the Chapter 11 process will affect Movement's blockchain, its partnerships or its payments plans.

Market Reaction

MOVE traded at about $0.0108 on July 21, roughly flat over the prior 24 hours and down about 8% over the past month, according to CoinGecko. The token carried a market capitalization near $45 million, ranking it around 474th by that measure.

The price sits roughly 99% below its all-time high of $1.45, reached on Dec. 10, 2024, days after launch.

The Movement chain held about $133 million in total value locked, according to DeFiLlama.