Movement Labs sees Facebook's Move language akin to "the early days of Solana"

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Movement Labs wants to make the Move language into “the Rust for blockchains”

Movement Labs co-founders may be in their early 20s, but that doesn’t mean they’re new to the crypto scene.

“Our general impetus was that we were early Aptos builders, we were early Move engineers, before that I was a Cosmos engineer,” Rushi Manche, co-founder of Movement Labs, said on the Talking Token podcast during Korea Blockchain Week.

(Listen in on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.)

Around August 2022, Manche had a feeling the Move coding language was “going to be big” as it was an “opportunity” for billions of users to use programming for crypto from the Facebook app. (Note: Facebook launched Move, specifically designed for blockchains and its now-dead Libra project)

In November 2022, Manche and his co-founder Cooper Scanlon decided it was time to go all-in and launched a week after FTX collapsed. “It was the depths of the bear market and everyone is running out of crypto, that is when it made the most sense to go into it.”

Their journey from scrappy startup to its position today wasn’t easy. After over 100 no’s from investors, the company saw a “snowball effect” and raised over $40 million total to date.

Now, it’s using that money to create a Move-ment across the blockchain space. (No pun intended.)

The current adoption of Move is “like the early days of Solana,” Manche said. “We’re still young, we’re still less than two years into it, it takes time for ecosystems to build.”

Still, he thinks Move is primed for major adoption — and wants his Move-centric blockchain network to play a pivotal role in its expansion.

It has partnered with a number of blockchains, dApps and ecosystems ranging from layer-1 chain Aptos to the AggLayer, that Polygon is a core developer of.

“It seems like every ecosystem is going to adapt this language as part of programming and we’re seeing developer counts increase,” Manche said. “My general thesis is Move is a bet on secure programming.

Every year there’s billions of dollars lost in smart contract hacks, he added. “even Solana is working on a Move implementation.”

“I think we’re going to see this language extend everywhere, it’s going to be like the Rust for blockchains,” Manche said.

“Give it six to 12 months and it’ll be a no brainer.”

Check out the next section for more details and the full episode.

The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For this week’s Thursday episode, I interviewed Rushi Manche, the co-founder of Movement Labs, while at Korea Blockchain Week.

We discuss his journey into the crypto space, what it’s like to operate as a younger founder, Movement’s integration into Aptos, the AggLayer and other ecosystems, as well as its future plans.

Talking Tokens episodes are released on Spotify and Apple Podcasts at 6AM EST or YouTube at 10AM EST every Tuesday and Thursday. Listen in!

Make sure to subscribe to keep up with the latest episodes. Feel free to leave a review and tell us your thoughts.

Monitoring blockchains

Looking at some of the biggest developments onchain.

• Ellipsis Labs launched a private testnet for its Atlas, aiming to bring Solana and Ethereum benefits into one chain

• Osmosis releases Polaris, its cross-chain token portal focused on expanding the ecosystem beyond its own

• Superchain expands with Synthetix’s launch of governance-focused SNAXchain

Taking on the tokens 

The total crypto market cap increased 2.01% in the past 24-hours to $2.03 trillion. It is also up the same amount, 2.01%, over a 7-day period.

As for the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap…

These metrics were taken prior to publication on Thursday morning EST.

Other numbers we’re eyeing…

• $1B - that’s how much stablecoins Singaporeans used for payments in Q2, according to a report from Chainalysis

Money and people moves

Latest updates on crypto startups that secured funding and industry players who are starting something new.

1. CleanSpark buys seven bitcoin mining facilities in Tennessee for $30 million (The Block)

2. Matter Labs, the team behind ZKsync, hires Solana Foundation’s former VP of marketing Meghan Hughes

3. Hadley Stern, the ex-President of Fidelity Digital Asset Services, has joined Solana-centric staking marketplace Marinade as its chief commercial officer

4. Tokenized RWA Platform Huma Finance Gets $38M Investment, Plans Expansion to Solana and Stellar’s Soroban (CoinDesk)

Talking points for the road 

Here’s some headlines and topics that you can talk about at your next dinner party, crypto event or on a first date to look smart (results may vary.) 

1. Former FTX Executive Caroline Ellison's Sentencing Hearing Set for Sept. 24 (CoinDesk)

2. US spot bitcoin ETFs rebound with $117 million in daily inflows led by Fidelity’s FBTC (The Block)

3. Robinhood’s crypto push is paying off as American millennials get richer (DL News)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.