Movement entered 2025 as one of crypto's most anticipated Layer 2 projects, only to become one of its most cautionary tales. The MOVE token launched at $1.21 in December 2024, crashed through a market-making scandal that saw its co-founder terminated, and now trades around $0.04, representing a 97% decline from all-time highs. For traders evaluating MOVE's prospects, the question isn't just about price targets but whether the project can rebuild credibility under new leadership.

Current Market Position

MOVE trades at approximately $0.036-0.04 as of late December 2025, with a market cap around $100 million and 2.8 billion tokens in circulation out of 10 billion total supply. The token reached its all-time low of $0.031 on December 18, 2025, suggesting the bottom may be forming after a brutal year of selling pressure.

Key Price Levels

The technical picture shows MOVE trading well below all major moving averages. RSI readings around 33-36 indicate oversold conditions, though oversold can persist longer than traders expect in damaged narratives.

What Happened to MOVE in 2025

Understanding MOVE's price collapse requires examining the scandal that destroyed investor confidence.

The Market-Making Disaster

Shortly after MOVE's December 2024 launch, a market maker allegedly sold 66 million tokens (approximately 5% of circulating supply at the time) for $38 million in profit. CoinDesk's investigation revealed the tokens were controlled by Rentech, an obscure entity with no digital footprint that appeared on both sides of the market-making agreement.

Internal documents showed Movement Foundation officials initially flagged the Rentech deal as "possibly the worst agreement" they had ever seen, yet the contract was signed anyway. The arrangement allegedly created incentives to pump MOVE's price before dumping on retail investors.

Leadership Fallout

Co-founder Rushi Manche was suspended in May 2025 and subsequently terminated. Movement Labs restructured under the Move Industries banner with new leadership. The scandal also triggered Coinbase suspending MOVE trading and Binance removing certain trading pairs.

The damage extended beyond price. World Liberty Financial (Trump's crypto venture) had purchased over $2 million worth of MOVE in January 2025, adding high-profile visibility to a project that would soon implode.

Technical Analysis and Price Scenarios

Current technical indicators paint a bearish picture, though the extreme oversold readings suggest potential stabilization.

Support and Resistance

Primary support sits at the all-time low around $0.031. If this level fails, there's limited technical support until psychological levels like $0.02. On the upside, initial resistance appears at $0.05-0.06, with more significant resistance at $0.10-0.11 where previous consolidation occurred.

Moving Average Analysis

MOVE trades far below its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, a configuration that typically indicates continued bearish momentum. According to CoinCodex technical analysis, the current sentiment registers as bearish with the majority of indicators signaling sell. However, the extreme deviation from these averages also creates potential for sharp relief rallies if sentiment shifts.

2025 Price Scenarios

Bearish Case ($0.02-0.04): Continued selling pressure from damaged trust, vesting unlocks adding supply, and broader market weakness keep MOVE near current levels or push toward new lows. This scenario assumes the scandal's reputational damage proves difficult to overcome.

Base Case ($0.05-0.15): Stabilization around current levels followed by gradual recovery as Move Industries executes on development milestones. New partnerships or ecosystem growth provide catalysts, but the overhang of underwater holders creates persistent resistance.

Bullish Case ($0.20-0.60): A combination of broader crypto bull market, successful ecosystem development, and time healing reputational wounds drives significant recovery. Some analyst predictions reach $0.60+ by year-end, though these seem optimistic given the damage sustained.

Factors That Could Drive Recovery

Despite the scandal, Movement's underlying technology remains compelling. The project brought Move's security advantages to Ethereum as the first MoveVM-based Layer 2 solution, addressing real problems in blockchain development.

Technical Differentiation

Move handles digital assets as first-class resources, preventing entire categories of bugs that have cost DeFi billions. The language enables parallel transaction processing that explains how Movement achieves throughput exceeding 10,000 TPS while supporting both Move and Solidity smart contracts.

Ecosystem Development

Over 200 teams built on Movement testnet before mainnet launch, demonstrating genuine developer interest beyond token speculation. If this development activity continues under new leadership, network usage could eventually support price recovery.

Token Supply Dynamics

With 2.8 billion tokens circulating out of 10 billion total, significant vesting remains. The initial 1 billion token airdrop distributed to testnet participants created immediate selling pressure. However, as weak hands exit and long-term holders accumulate at lower prices, supply dynamics could eventually favor price appreciation.

Risk Factors

Several significant risks could prevent MOVE recovery or drive further decline.

Trust Deficit

The market-making scandal damaged Movement's credibility at a critical growth stage. Rebuilding trust requires sustained execution over time, and crypto markets have short memories for failures but long memories for broken promises. Similar projects like MANTRA faced extended recovery timelines after their own scandals.

Competition

Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, and other established Layer 2s have significant advantages in liquidity, users, and developer mindshare. Movement must compete for attention while simultaneously repairing its reputation.

Vesting Pressure

The token distribution allocated 22.5% to early backers and 17.5% to early contributors, both subject to vesting schedules extending through 2029. These unlocks create ongoing selling pressure as insiders gain access to tokens at prices far below their entry points.

Move Adoption

Despite security advantages, Move remains less familiar than Solidity. Convincing developers to learn a new language requires demonstrating clear benefits, and the scandal may have scared away teams evaluating the ecosystem.

What Analysts Predict

Price predictions for MOVE vary dramatically, reflecting uncertainty about recovery prospects.

Conservative forecasts from algorithmic models suggest MOVE trading between $0.04-0.07 through 2025, essentially range-bound near current levels. These models weight recent price action heavily and see limited near-term catalysts.

More optimistic analysts point to potential recovery toward $0.15-0.30 if broader market conditions improve and Movement executes effectively under new leadership. Some predictions reach $0.60+ by year-end, though these appear to underweight the reputational damage.

Long-term forecasts for 2030 range from $1.00 to $3.00+, assuming the project survives and the Layer 2 ecosystem continues growing. These projections require significant assumptions about recovery trajectory and competitive positioning.

Trading Considerations

For traders considering MOVE positions, the asymmetric risk/reward profile cuts both ways.

Bull Case Logic

At 97% below all-time highs with legitimate technology and new leadership, MOVE offers significant upside if recovery materializes. Small position sizes could generate substantial returns if the project rebuilds successfully.

Bear Case Logic

Broken trust, ongoing vesting pressure, and fierce competition could keep MOVE depressed for extended periods. The scandal created an overhang of underwater holders who may sell on any recovery, creating persistent resistance.

Risk Management

Given MOVE's volatility and uncertainty, position sizing matters more than usual. The token has demonstrated capacity for both rapid rallies and devastating declines. Stop-loss orders help manage downside risk in such volatile conditions.

MOVE's Recovery Depends on Execution

Movement's technology addresses real problems in blockchain security, and over 200 teams showed pre-launch interest in the ecosystem. The Move programming language offers genuine advantages over Solidity for financial applications, and the modular MoveStack framework positions the project as infrastructure for launching purpose-built rollups.

Whether traders view MOVE as a recovery opportunity or a cautionary tale depends largely on conviction in Move Industries' ability to overcome the trust deficit created by the market-making scandal. Rebuilding from 97% losses requires time, transparency, and flawless execution under new leadership.

Trade MOVE on LeveX spot markets for direct exposure or explore MOVE futures for leveraged positions. Learn about other Layer 2 projects and blockchain infrastructure in our Crypto in a Minute guides.