After token-dumping scandal, Movement relaunches as Layer 1

Movement, the beleaguered Ethereum Layer 2 that was mired in controversy shortly after launch last year, has relaunched as a standalone Layer 1 blockchain with the intent of becoming the stablecoin settlement solution for emerging markets, Move Industries' new CEO Torab Torabi told The Block.

On Tuesday, Move Industries announced that over the past several months, it has worked to secure access to licensed payment rails across the United States, Canada, and the European Union via partnerships with regulated money transmitters and e-money institutions.

The firm is now partnered with the likes of stablecoin issuer Circle, wallet startups KAST and Sorted, and tokenization projects Oro, Yuzu Money, and Zoth, among others, on a litany of offerings, according to an announcement.

Avant Protocol, for instance, has tapped the Movement Network to support yield and treasury products.

Rather than chasing general-purpose block space in an oversupplied Layer 2 market, Movement is doubling down on "real-world" use cases in underserved regions via a sovereign blockchain, Torabi said.

Movement first announced it intended to relaunch as a Layer 1 last year, focused on compliant fintech and neobank products, which can operate without relying on the traditional correspondent banking systems.

"That's part of the reason why we're rebranding," Torabi told The Block in an interview. "Essentially, we are no longer a crypto company. We're a fintech company that uses blockchain rails."

Verticalized stack

Torabi noted that, as an Ethereum Layer 2, Movement offered no competitive advantage. He called the old network a "Frankenstein" chain cobbled together from various components and dependencies, like Celestia for data availability and Ethereum settlement, that suffered from its poor construction.

The project still uses the MOVE programming language, which was built internally at Facebook for the shuttered Libra/Diem blockchain effort, which also spurred the Aptos and Sui Layer 1 chains.

"Our latency was like seven seconds," Torabi said. "If you're seven seconds in L2, what the hell is the point of you existing to begin with, right?"

Shifting to a "verticalized" and sovereign tech stack, and acquiring some products, like the vault and money market infrastructure project Canopy, will enable Movement to zero in on the niche of financial services.

Torabi said Movement now runs its own validator set on a dedicated Layer 1, and is targeting sub-500 millisecond settlement times.

"We realized there's a lot of demand on the payments, remittances, and yield stack, especially in emerging markets," Torabi said. "So we've essentially become a little more opinionated on how we approach it."

While the project is launching amid a period of stablecoin adoption, it is far from the only network aiming for global traction. Movement is rebranding at a time when Stripe and Paradigm are pouring resources into Tempo and as major institutions back Canton, to say nothing of the traction behind chains like Solana and Ethereum, and Ethereum's coterie of scaling layers.

"I sincerely do believe that every chain is soul searching," Torabi, who previously worked in business development for Movement before being promoted, said. "Everyone is basically trying to figure out where they fit into this global tapestry of blockchain. And so for us, for me, I don't like to chase things. A lot of these opportunities came straight to us."

Circle, for instance, launched USDCx as a natively issued stablecoin on Movement to support payments, treasury, and savings products.

"Circle was pretty aggressive in wanting to obviously win market share in 'the countries you can't pronounce,'" Torabi said, adding the firm approached Movement. "If Tether wants to dance, I'm down to dance," he added.

Moving on?

Of course, another reason to relaunch and rebrand was the baggage associated with Movement following a major token-dumping scandal in early 2025. According to a Binance investigation at the time, a market