The price of MOVE, the native digital token for the Movement blockchain, jumped about 20% on Tuesday, outperforming major cryptocurrencies as a report emerged that the network’s developers might be in discussions with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) team, which is reportedly exploring the use of blockchain tech in its efforts.
Blockchain data also showed that a crypto wallet address linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s decentralized finance project, World Liberty Financial, bought about $2 million of the tokens as the price was climbing.
The timing prompted some commenters on social media to wonder aloud whether it was a case of “inside buying.”
Movement co-founder Rushi Manche told Unchained in an interview over Google Meet that he couldn’t confirm whether any discussions had taken place with the DOGE team. Trump has appointed Musk, the Tesla founder and billionaire who was a major contributor to the president’s successful campaign, to find ways of making the government more efficient. Bloomberg News reported a couple days ago that Musk jumpstarted discussions of using blockchain technology at DOGE, which aims to optimize government efficiency and productivity.
Manche told Unchained, “I think some of the work that we’re doing resonated with the folks in the administration.”
Read More: President Trump Declares Crypto a National Priority in Executive Order
Manche said in the interview that he was “not in the loop” of World Liberty Financial’s decision to buy the tokens, and he posted on the social-media platform X that “nothing from the Movement Labs offices or growth team have crossed DOGE’s desks.”
He also tweeted that “We would like to thank” World Liberty Financial, writing that the project was “proud to be the first altcoin, first modern blockchain platform, and first alternative VM under the new administration. MOVE is Made in America.” VM stands for “virtual machine” and refers to a software environment that runs smart contracts on a blockchain network.
When asked to respond to the insider allegations, Manche said, “We make blockchain infrastructure, so I have no knowledge of anything that transpired.”
Ogle, a pseudonymous advisor for World Liberty Financial, told Unchained over Telegram that he didn’t have any insight on World Liberty’s acquisition of MOVE.
“I have no clue why or how they made the choice to buy those tokens,” Ogle said. The co-founder of World Liberty Financial, Zach Witkoff, did not immediately response to Unchained’s request for comment.
Manche also noted in the interview that Movement earlier Tuesday had announced the rollout of the developer phase of its main network, allowing project builders and coders to start testing their applications.
A Play-by-Play of What Happened
Here’s how the timing went: Starting around 7:30 a.m. Eastern U.S. time, the MOVE price began rising.
World Liberty Financial started acquiring the token at 9:22 a.m. ET, data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence shows. At the time, MOVE was changing hands around 75 cents.
Blockchain data shows that World executed four transactions (tx1, tx2, tx3, and tx4), acquiring roughly 2.4 million MOVE tokens.
At 9:48 a.m. ET, DBNews (@tier10k on X) published a tweet asserting that Movement was among several firms in discussions with the DOGE team, citing “sources.”
At about 9:56 a.m. ET, the MOVE price peaked around 90 cents. As of press time, the price had settled back down to about 81 cents.
The token was one of the best performers on the day, outpacing major cryptocurrencies including bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum’s ether (ETH), Solana’s SOL, and XRP, according to CoinGecko.
MOVE makes up less than 1% of World Liberty Financial’s onchain portfolio, which is worth in total $391.8 million, according to Arkham.
ETH makes up 48% of the project’s holdings, while the remaining tokens consist of several stablecoins, wrapped bitcoin, Tron network’s native token, and numerous DeFi tokens such as Aave, LINK, and ENA.
