Movement Labs confirmed the suspension of its co-founder, Rushi Manche, following controversies over a market maker deal that he brokered.

Movement announced the suspension of Manche in a May 2 X post, explaining that the “decision was made in light of ongoing events.” The decision follows Coinbase’s recent decision to suspend the Movement Network (MOVE) trading, citing the token’s failure to meet its listing standards.

Source: Movement

The suspension came after a recently announced third-party review requested by the Movement Network Foundation into an agreement orchestrated by Manche with Rentech — the latter helped broker an agreement with market maker Web3Port. Private intelligence firm Groom Lake is conducting the investigation.

This was followed by Web3Port reportedly selling the 66 million MOVE that it gained through the deal — about 5% of the total supply. This led to $38 million in downward price pressure in December 2024.

Groom Lake refused to comment on the investigation.

Related: Citadel Securities eyes market-making role for crypto exchanges: Report

Market makers are a controversial player in crypto

According to a recent analysis, the right market maker can be a launchpad for a cryptocurrency project, opening the door to major exchanges and providing valuable liquidity to ensure a token is tradeable. On the other hand, when the wrong incentives are set, market makers can kill a project as it is taking its first steps in the market.

A summer 2024 report suggests that up to 78% of new token listings since April 2024 have been poorly conducted, with some suggesting that market makers are involved.

Related: How to choose a market maker for your Web3 project

Lawsuits claim market maker manipulation

Creditors of bankrupt cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network have alleged that leading crypto market maker Wintermute was involved in the wash trading of the Celsius token. Wash trading is a form of market manipulation that creates the illusion that a particular asset is trading at a higher volume than it actually is.

This is far from the only such case. In late 2024, Fracture Labs, creator of the Web3 game Decimated, filed suit against market maker Jump Crypto for allegedly orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme using its in-game currency, DIO.

Another notable example is a Wall Street Journal report claimed that DWF Labs, one of Binance’s largest trading clients, engaged in market manipulation, wash trading and inflated trading volumes amounting to $300 million through deals with crypto projects. DWF Labs and Binance later denied the accusation in May 2024.

Last month, a Massachusetts court fined crypto market maker CLS Global for fraudulent manipulation of trading volumes. In late February, the founder of a so-called crypto hedge fund and market maker called Gotbit was extradited from Portugal to the US, where he faces market manipulation charges and wire fraud conspiracy.

Magazine: What do crypto market makers actually do? Liquidity, or manipulation

Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD

Lately, stablecoins are everywhere — this time around, headed by “traditional” financial institutions. Bank of America and Standard Chartered are considering launching their own stablecoin, joining JPMorgan, which launched its stablecoin, JPM Coin — rebranded as Kinexys Digital Payments — to facilitate transactions with their institutional clients on their blockchain platform, Kinexys (formerly Onyx). 

Mastercard plans to bring stablecoins to the mainstream, joining Bleap Finance, a crypto startup. The aim is to enable stablecoins to be spent directly onchain — without conversions or intermediaries — seamlessly integrating blockchain assets with Mastercard’s global payment rails. 

In early April 2025, Visa joined the Global Dollar Network (USDG) stablecoin consortium. The company will become the first traditional finance player to join the consortium. In late March 2025, NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced that it is investigating applications for using USDC (USDC) stablecoin and US Yield Coin within its derivatives exchanges, clearinghouses, data services and other markets.

Why the renewed interest in stablecoins?

Regulatory clarity and acceptance

Recent moves by regulatory bodies in the United States and Europe have created more straightforward guidelines for cryptocurrency use. In the US, Congress is considering legislation to establish formal standards for stablecoins, bolstering confidence among banks and fintech companies.

The European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation requires that stablecoin issuers operating within the EU adhere to specific financial standards, including special reserve requirements and risk mitigation. In the UK, financial authorities plan to conduct consultations to draft rules governing stablecoin use, further facilitating their acceptance and adoption.

The Trump administration executive order 14067, “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” supports and “promotes the development and growth of lawful and legitimate dollar-backed stablecoins worldwide” while “prohibiting the establishment, issuance, circulation, and use of a CBDC within the jurisdiction of the United States.”

This executive order, followed by Trump’s World Liberty Financial company launching a stablecoin called USD1, signals that this is the era of stablecoins, particularly those pegged to the USD.

Do we need more stablecoins?

The stablecoin landscape

There are over 200 stablecoins, most pegged to the US dollar. Two established stablecoins dominate the stablecoin landscape. Tether’s USDt (USDT), the oldest stablecoin, launched in 2014 and USDC, launched in 2018, capturing 65% and 28% of stablecoins market cap, respectively — both are centralized fiat collateralized. 

Recent: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight

In third place, a relatively new one, USDe, launched in February 2024, holds about 2% of the stablecoin market cap and has an unconventional mechanism based on derivatives in the crypto market. Although it runs on a DeFi protocol on Ethereum, it incorporates centralized features since centralized exchanges hold the derivatives positions.

There are three primary mechanisms of stablecoins:

Centralized, fiat-collateralized: A centralized company maintains reserves of the assets in a bank or trust (e.g., for currency) or a vault (e.g., for gold) and issues tokens (i.e., stablecoins) that represent a claim on the underlying asset.

Decentralized, cryptocurrency-collateralized: A stablecoin is backed by other decentralized crypto assets. One example can be found in the MakerDAO stablecoin Dai (DAI), which is pegged to the US dollar and encapsulates the features of decentralization. While a central organization controls centralized stablecoins, no one entity controls the issuance of DAI.

Decentralized, uncollateralized: This mechanism ensures the stability of the coin’s value by controlling its supply through an algorithm executed by a smart contract. In some ways, this is no different from central banks, which also don’t rely on reserve assets to keep the value of their currency stable. The difference is that central banks, like the Federal Reserve, set a monetary policy publicly based on well-understood parameters, and its status as the issuer of legal tender provides the credibility of that policy.

Depegging, risk and fraudsters

Stablecoins are supposed to be stable. They were created to overcome the inherent volatility of cryptocurrencies. To maintain their stability, stablecoins should (1) be pegged to a stable asset and (2) follow a mechanism that sustains the peg.

If stablecoins are pegged to gold or electricity, they will reflect the volatility of these assets and thus may not be the best choice if you are seeking a no-risk (or close to no-risk) asset.

USDe maintains a peg to the USD through delta hedging. It uses short and long positions in futures, which generates a 27% yield annually — significantly higher than the 12% annual yield of other stablecoins pegged to the USD. Derivative positions are considered risky — the higher the risk, the higher the return. Therefore, it encapsulates an inherited risk due to its reliance on derivatives, which runs counter to the purpose of stablecoins. 

Stablecoins have been around for more than a decade. During this time, there were no major depegging fiascos other than the case of Terra. The collapse of Terra was not the result of a reserve problem or mechanism but rather the act of fraudsters and manipulators.

TerraUSD (UST) had a built-in arbitrage mechanism between UST and the Terra blockchain native coin, LUNA. To create UST, you needed to burn LUNA.

To entice traders to burn LUNA and create UST, the creators of the Terra blockchain offered a 19.5% yield on staking, which is crypto terminology for earning 19.5% interest on a deposit, through what they called the Anchor protocol.

Such a high interest rate is simply not sustainable. Someone has to borrow at such a rate or above for the lender to receive 19.5% interest. This is how banks make their profit — they charge high interest on borrowing (such as mortgages or loans) and provide low interest on savings (such as a traditional savings account or a certificate of deposit account). Analysis of the Anchor protocol in January 2022 showed it was at a loss.

One of the allegations in the lawsuits against Terraform Labs’ founders is that the Anchor protocol was a Ponzi scheme.

In March 2025, Galaxy Digital reached a $200-million settlement with the New York Attorney General over claims the crypto investing company promoted the LUNA digital asset without disclosing its interest in the token.

In January 2025, Do Kwon, founder of Terra, was found liable for securities fraud and is facing multiple charges in the US, including fraud, wire fraud and commodities fraud. If regulators are interested in preventing future cases like Terra, they should focus on how to deter fraudsters and manipulators from issuing or engaging with stablecoins.

Decentralization: Rekindling the premise of Bitcoin

Most stablecoins are centralized assets collateralized. They are controlled by a company that could conduct unauthorized use of customers’ funds or falsely claim that reserves fully back a stablecoin.

To prevent companies’ misconduct, regulators should closely monitor these companies and set rules similar to securities laws. 

Centralized stablecoins run counter to the notion of blockchain and the premise of Bitcoin. When Bitcoin was launched, it was supposed to be a payment platform free of intermediaries, not controlled by any company, bank or government — a decentralized mechanism — run by the people for the people.

If a stablecoin is centralized, it should follow the regulations of any other centralized asset.

Maybe it’s time to rekindle the premise of Bitcoin but in a more “stable” fashion. Developing an algorithmic, decentralized stablecoin that is free of any control of a company, bank or government and reviving the core notion of blockchain.

Opinion by: Merav Ozair, PhD.

This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

As the crypto space developed, blockchain use cases expanded from simple digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to more complex areas such as digital identity verification and telecommunications. 

Ahead of the Token2049 event in Dubai, Cointelegraph spoke with Spacecoin CEO Stuart Gardner, Spacecoin founder Tae Oh, and Humanity Protocol founder Terrence Kwok to explore how they use blockchain to improve certain industries. 

From addressing challenges like verification in the artificial intelligence era to bringing internet connectivity to developing countries, projects are integrating blockchain to solve problems in different industries.  

Digital identity verification to combat the AI threat 

As artificial intelligence developed, the technology brought improvements that people could benefit from. However, the technology was also adopted by malicious actors who used the tech to perform AI-assisted hack research and deepfake scams.  

Kwok told Cointelegraph that just two years ago, the idea of having to prove you’re human seemed “crazy.” However, with today’s advancements in AI, it has become remarkably easy to fake being a real person.

“As for content, you can’t tell if it’s AI-generated or not. Video deepfakes, you cannot tell, right? Even documents. It’s super easy now to use AI to create a fake proof of address, a fake proof of balance for your bank statement. I think in the future it’s only going to get worse,” he said. 

The executive also said that in the future, AI may also exist in the physical world through humanoids that might mimic human beings. In 2024, Tesla’s humanoid robot project was showcased on social media, highlighting developments in humanoid robotics. 

Kwok said that the development of robots underscores the need for human identity verification even more. The executive said that this was why they launched the Humanity Protocol, which uses blockchain tech for digital identity verification. 

“The internet is filled with bots, you know, it’s filled with AI agents. They’re great, but there’s also a need to be able to verify and check whether something or somebody is a person or not,” Kwok told Cointelegraph. 

Terrence Kwok (left) and Cointelegraph’s Ezra Reguerra at the Dubai Polo and Equestrian Club. Source: Cointelegraph

Related: Global demand grows for non-dollar stablecoins, says Fireblocks exec

Decentralized satellite network to combat the connectivity oligopoly

Apart from digital identity, blockchain technology is also being used to create a decentralized satellite network. 

Gardner told Cointelegraph that at the moment, the satellite connectivity landscape is an oligopoly, a market structure where the industry is dominated by only a few large players. 

The executive pointed out that Starlink and Amazon lead the race, while the EU and China are catching up. However, the big problem is that over 150 countries are lagging behind. 

“They’re going to become reliant upon working with one of these oligopolies for their connectivity. And that poses a big issue for these people,” Gardner added. 

On Nov. 1, Spacecoin unveiled a plan to launch a decentralized physical infrastructure network (DePIN) through a fleet of nanosatellites in space. 

Oh told Cointelegraph that the Spacecoin idea came from the observation that the space industry is getting heavily commoditized. However, the executive said that it was possible for smaller companies or even individuals to launch their own satellites and start building constellations for connectivity. 

The Spacecoin founder added that since different people or entities own each satellite, it’s essentially a “decentralized network.” 

The executive said that they integrated crypto into the project to have a “trustless means of payment and data exchange.” Oh said that this was where the blockchain comes in. 

Gardner (left) , Oh (middle) and Reguerra at the Crypto Polo event in Dubai. Source: Cointelegraph

Magazine: Crypto wanted to overthrow banks, now it’s becoming them in stablecoin fight