Binance Removes Market Maker That Reportedly Earned $38 Million From MOVE Listing

The entity was removed on March 18, and both Movement Labs and the Movement Foundation teams were notified about the "irregularities with their market maker."

Key Points:

• Binance removed a market maker for engaging in one-sided market making, violating the exchange’s rules.

• The entity profited $38 million from Movement’s MOVE tokens, according to Binance.

• All proceeds were frozen to compensate affected users.

Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange by trading volume, announced it had removed a market maker for Movement's MOVE token due to its connection with another market maker previously offboarded for “misconduct.”

Market makers play a crucial role in ensuring liquidity, facilitating smooth trading without major price fluctuations or delays. They achieve this by quoting bid and ask prices while taking the opposite side of transactions.

The unnamed market maker earned $38 million when MOVE tokens were first listed for trading, Binance said Tuesday. Instead of fulfilling its role by maintaining sufficient order sizes and placing both bid and ask orders, it primarily placed sell orders for 66 million MOVE tokens a day after the listing, with very few buy orders.

One-sided market-making is widely considered illicit, and Binance emphasized that it enforces strict rules against such practices.

The entity was removed from the platform on March 18, with Movement Labs and the Movement Foundation notified of the “irregularities with their market maker.” The market maker is now barred from participating on the exchange, and all proceeds were frozen to compensate affected users, with further details to be provided later.

Binance stated that any project-authorized market makers violating its principles and rules will face further action to protect users.

This development follows an unrelated incident where Binance suspended a staff member after an internal investigation into alleged front-running trades from a previous role at BNB Chain.