Sui Foundation Ends Partnership With MoveEX Following Contract Violation

Sui Foundation, the non-profit organization behind the Sui Network, has terminated its partnership with MovEX, a decentralized exchange (DEX) and liquidity management platform, following the violation of a lockup agreement.

According to a blog post by the Sui Foundation, MovEX moved some Sui tokens (SUI) that were subject to a contractual lockup without informing or seeking consent from the organization, sparking accusations of misrepresented emissions from the crypto community.

Sui Foundation Cuts Ties With MovEX

MovEx was an early contributor to Sui during its mainnet launch in May, serving as a core builder for the network’s DeepBook, a shared decentralized central limit order book created for the ecosystem.

At the time, 5.15% of the total SUI supply was in circulation, with the rest released on a preset schedule to early contributors to maintain network stability. The tokens were subject to a lockup period in line with the release schedule.

In June, however, the pseudonymous Twitter user DefiSquared accused Sui of intentionally misrepresenting token emissions and dumping rewards from locked, non-circulating staked SUI on crypto exchange Binance.

Through several investigations, the Sui Foundation discovered that MovEX executed the transactions that stirred the accusations. Out of the 2.5 million SUI received as payment for contributing to DeepBook, the decentralized exchange had initiated three transactions of 625,000 SUI to three different wallets, leaving the rest in the original wallet.

Sui Foundation has ended its relationship with MovEX as the DEX breached the contractual lockup and failed to seek consent before initiating those transactions. Earlier this month, the foundation asked MovEX to move the 2.5 million SUI to a qualified custodian who will release them according to the token emission schedule.

MovEX Reponds

In response to the announcement by Sui Foundation, MovEX took to Twitter to explain that it had only distributed the tokens to custodian and non-custodian wallets.

“We would like to express our understanding regarding the conclusion of our partnership with Sui. We deeply value the journey filled with dedication, hard work, and honors, and we are truly appreciative of the support we received from the community,” MovEX said.

The Sui Foundation has assured the crypto community that “all other tokens subject to contractual lockups are held in qualified custodian accounts that have agreed to enforce the terms of such lockups.”