The Logic Behind Reverse Investment Movement and the Growth Secrets of the 10 Billion FDV

Recently, the Ethereum L2 Movement based on the Move language has sparked heated discussions, and while launching on multiple exchanges, it briefly entered the ten billion dollar market cap club. A certain investment firm shared their story of investing in Movement, with one of the founding partners being one of the investors in Movement's Series A funding.

Looking back at 2023, the investment institution's team initially decided to abandon investing in Movement, but this decision was ultimately overturned, prompting the team to reassess the project. Today, $MOVE has officially launched------this is undoubtedly an extraordinary story that illustrates how a non-consensus and contrarian investment decision eventually became a focal point in the industry. Even more surprising is that all of this was created by two college dropouts. This article will delve into the thoughts and reflections of the investment institution during the decision-making process, as well as the development journey of Movement over the past 20 months.

Initial Veto

Initially, Movement was merely a decentralized application based on Aptos, but after facing challenges in the Aptos ecosystem last year, the team decided to pivot to other platforms. The vision of Movement is to overcome the limitations of the Move ecosystem and establish a bridge connecting Move and EVM, but at that time, the market was too niche and filled with challenges, especially considering the team had limited resources and consisted of just two college dropouts.

Although the investment institution has always supported the narrative of alternative virtual machines and young entrepreneurs, it is hard to imagine how Movement can compete with Sui and Aptos, which have strong resource support. These two projects are well-funded and well-connected, regarded as the "leaders" of the Move ecosystem. In contrast, Movement seems to have a bleak outlook, which is why the investment institution initially abandoned this investment.

The cryptocurrency industry has long favored the principle of "super brains" when it comes to infrastructure investment, focusing too much on minor technological advancements while neglecting the key human factors that ultimately drive success. This model is not new—it explains the intense yet often counterproductive dynamics in projects dominated by intellectuals.

However, after multiple in-depth discussions with the founders, the institution has proposed a completely new perspective: a people-centered investment philosophy. The success of a project depends not just on a group of technical elites, but on those who can transcend the tech circles, unite the community, inspire developers, and build a sustainable ecosystem. As the industry matures, true entrepreneurs will increasingly be rewarded, rather than those who are merely idealists and crypto geeks, a trend that has already begun to emerge in several projects during this cycle.

Adopting a new programming language is not only about showcasing its technical advantages but also about establishing a sense of identity among developers. This is not just a technical breakthrough; it requires a clear distribution strategy and alignment with the identity of developers. More importantly, there must be a charismatic leader who can inspire the next generation of developers, especially those who go beyond the traditional crypto-native community, to embrace this language and its ecosystem.

This is precisely the uniqueness of Movement and its founder. As an independent third party, Movement has the potential to fill this gap. The founder's story showcases resilience, ambition, independence from established paths, and a relentless fighting spirit, qualities that bestow upon him the unique traits of a founder, making him a "dark horse" worth betting on. From this perspective, the organization overturned its initial decision, and the team chose to firmly support the founder, leading to developments that, as people say, have become part of the history of the crypto industry.

Why choose the Move language?

There is indeed aesthetic fatigue in the market regarding infrastructure, but it is important to distinguish which efforts can drive the industry's prospects and which are merely minor optimizations. The industry often falls into pseudo-intellectual debates on micro-optimizations, while the true power of blockchain lies in the continuous experimentation of human coordination and capital formation.

Currently, the security of smart contracts is one of the main obstacles hindering this experiment. Every year, the funds lost due to vulnerabilities can reach billions of dollars, making the resource costs required to maintain on-chain security far exceed the benefits it brings, thereby hindering true mainstream adoption.

At this time, the Move programming language played an important role. The Move language was created by the crypto team of a certain social media giant, fundamentally rethinking how to write secure, modular, and verifiable smart contracts. In short, the Move programming language aims to provide developers and application builders with an overall superior programming language. As detailed in the documentation of Movement Labs, Move aims to provide developers with a safer and more predictable development environment, significantly reducing the risk of catastrophic vulnerabilities.

Essentially, Move prioritizes correctness and safety in the design of its programming language. The result of this design is an optimized development environment that protects developers and users while facilitating experimentation without putting the community at constant risk.

Thanks to the early work of certain teams------these projects were initiated by the engineers and architects who originally developed Move------Move now has a true track record in practice. These projects have demonstrated that blockchain platforms based on Move are capable of delivering strong performance and fulfilling their promised security.

Why choose $MOVE?

Despite some progress in development based on Move, there are still gaps. Certain projects with "noble lineage" have abundant resource support, yet they have not fully unleashed their potential in developer adoption (at least that was the case when the team invested in Movement). These protocols have received substantial funding since 2023 but have failed to break through market cycles and achieve real market appeal. Whether due to misaligned priorities or inefficiencies caused by inertia, their efforts have not made substantial breakthroughs in building grassroots communities and developer ecosystems.

As mentioned earlier, the adoption of a new programming language depends not only on its technical advantages but also on establishing a sense of identity among developers. With the resilience and execution demonstrated by the founding team, Movement Labs has become the ideal team to advocate for the Move language. In just 18 months, the Movement Labs team has made remarkable progress:

· 45 million USD of private placement funds · 60 applications running on the testnet · Over 2000 hackathon participants · $150 million TVL commitment · 1 million active addresses · 52 active Movement communities in various regions

Movement Labs' vision is to create a safer and more scalable future for the crypto world, extending the advantages of the Move programming language to a broader crypto ecosystem.

· Move Language-based Ethereum L2: This solution combines the security and efficiency of the Move language with the world's largest smart contract ecosystem (Ethereum), allowing developers to enjoy the advantages of both development environments.

· Fractal: Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) interpreter. To address developer experience and cross-chain integration, the Movement Labs team launched Fractal, allowing developers to convert Solidity codebases to Move-based environments.

· Community-driven participation: Recognizing that technology adoption relies on social norms, the Movement Labs team has invested substantial resources in developer education, community engagement, hackathons, and other grassroots activities. They did not impose a top-down vision but instead invited the community to participate together, creating an environment conducive to growth.

Why choose the founder?

The cryptocurrency market has gradually deviated from its original cyberpunk spirit, becoming more and more like a game dominated by the privileged class and elites. At the core values of this investment institution, the idea of "focusing on substance over identity" is always upheld—prioritizing meaningful growth potential rather than superficial backgrounds or investments.

For many years, the organization has consistently supported anonymous founders and entrepreneurs in adversity, exposing the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed elites. This belief has fostered a deep resonance with those founders who, despite lacking resources, have gone further through resilience and perseverance.

Upholding the core spirit of the "Roman Empire", the Movement Labs team strives to build an ecosystem from the ground up------an inclusive, resilient, and meritocratic ecosystem. Just as ancient Rome was a city built by people from all walks of life------not only welcoming elites but also embracing outsiders, exiles, refugees, and those from lower social classes. Movement Labs is creating a home for these "homeless developers". Their strategy is to provide a supportive environment for talented developers who lack high-end resources or connections, ensuring that the drive for innovation comes from ability rather than privilege.

In this market cycle, we have seen a decisive shift in the founder community: those who deeply understand global communities and cultures are becoming the dominant force—this is also an important reason for investing in Movement and certain projects, and even the revival of a certain public chain benefits from the cooperation between the East and the West. As a second-generation Indian founder, the founder of Movement brings a fresh perspective by combining Eastern philosophy with Western expertise in technology and capital markets.

Their true qualities stand out remarkably: humility, openness, quick iteration, and disinterest in political or ranking games. For instance, the founder still lives in a small rented room and has promised to only do laundry properly after the "wartime" chaos of the Movement TGE (Token Generation Event) is over. This unadorned resilience embodies the spirit of a new generation of builders.

When the Movement testnet was launched, it faced widespread criticism due to its task design, with many users complaining on social media about the heavy burden of the tasks. The team's response was a model of transparency. Within 10 minutes of receiving feedback, the founder initiated a live stream to directly address the community's concerns. He published a detailed written clarification within an hour, ensuring that community members felt their voices were heard and valued.

We rarely encounter a team that responds to criticism so swiftly and remains grounded at all times. The founder's leadership is characterized by honesty and directness, qualities that stem from his background. He is very enthusiastic about interacting with the community in real-time, participating in over 50 different breakout sessions during meetings to understand grassroots sentiments and developers' dilemmas, inspiring many peers.

It is important to know that building an ecosystem requires a lot of coordination and trust, and as a first-time entrepreneur, the founder has shown exceptional performance in establishing meaningful relationships. At the beginning of 2023, when a core contributor of a certain project introduced Movement to the investment institution, the team was impressed by the strong support from the founder. Despite the 20-year age difference between the two, the pride that the other party had in the founder's growth was evident, which also proved that the founder was able to establish deep trust across generations.

Some people may think that "community-driven" is mutually exclusive to raising millions of dollars through private round financing. But is this really the case? The ultimate goal of private investors and the community is the same: the success of the project and the positive effects it brings.

The essence of venture capital lies in supporting bold contrarian investments: backing ideas and founders when no one else dares to take the risk. This is the true spirit of "venture" capital.

We agree with this viewpoint, even though the investment institution does not follow the typical venture capital operating manual and does not rely on external capital like most venture capitals. Since the institution participates with 100% self-raised funds, every investment is a true venture capital investment. This shared commitment connects us closely with early community members who also believe in the project's potential.

What people truly resent is not the venture capital investment itself, but the circle culture, privilege consciousness, and nepotism.