In simply two hours on April 13, 2025, Mantra’s native token OM misplaced greater than 90% of its worth – a crash that echoed the notorious Luna collapse and now stands as one of the extreme value meltdowns in crypto historical past.
About Mantra, it’s a Layer 1 blockchain mission with OM as its native token. In February 2025, OM skilled a parabolic rally, surging from $5 to a peak of $8.99.
From Asia’s Promising Undertaking to a Luna-Fashion Meltdown
In keeping with information from CoinMarketCap and TradingView, OM started to plummet from $6.33 on the night of April 13 to round $0.40 in lower than two hours— a virtually 94% drop.
Because of this, Mantra’s market capitalization evaporated by practically $5.5 billion, falling from $6 billion to simply $500 million.
“I haven’t seen a crash of this pace and scale for the reason that LUNA collapse,” one dealer commented on X.
OM crashed in 2 hours – Supply: CoinGecko
On-chain information revealed {that a} private pockets transferred roughly 3.9 million OM tokens to the OKX trade simply earlier than the crash occurred. The group now suspects the pockets belongs to an insider from the mission.
Moreover, in line with a report from BeInCrypto, the Mantra staff was concerned in undisclosed over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, allegedly promoting tokens at reductions of as much as 50% in comparison with market costs.
“MANTRA has a extremely centralized token distribution construction, with over 85% of the overall provide held by the staff and strategic buyers. An inner sell-off might simply set off a domino impact,” Lookonchain commented.
Who dropped the worth of $OM?
Earlier than the $OM crash(since Apr 7), not less than 17 wallets deposited 43.6M $OM($227M on the time) into exchanges, 4.5% of the circulating provide.
In keeping with Arkham’s tag, 2 of those addresses are linked to Laser Digital.
Laser Digital is a strategic… pic.twitter.com/zB8yAPRPSO
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 14, 2025
The incident sparked robust backlash towards the Mantra staff. Some social media customers started digging into the staff’s previous, stating that WuBlockchain had beforehand warned that sure key members of the mission have been allegedly linked to the web playing platform 21Pink.
WuBlockchain warned the danger of MANTRA DAO in 2021. It’s composed of a number of core members of the web playing platform 21Pink. OM as soon as falsely claimed to have obtained FTX funding however FTX later denied the data. https://t.co/N1SeACx7A5
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) April 14, 2025
There have been additionally claims that MANTRA as soon as said it had obtained funding from FTX, a press release later publicly denied by the now-defunct trade.
“Not Our Fault”: Mantra Factors at Exchanges After 94% OM Collapse
Shortly after OM’s dramatic plunge, Mantra co-founder John Patrick Mullin issued a public assertion in an try to calm the group.
Posting on his private account, Mullin firmly denied any involvement from the core staff, the MANTRA Chain Affiliation, or inner buyers within the sell-off. He emphasised that each one tokens stay locked underneath the publicly disclosed vesting schedule and that each one project-related wallets are absolutely clear and trackable.
Mullin claimed that centralized exchanges (CEXes) triggered pressured liquidations throughout a interval of low market liquidity—particularly late Sunday UTC.
“The timing and depth of the drop level to an sudden place closure with no warnings or prior discover. Such an incident highlights a scarcity of oversight by centralized exchanges and will mirror an intentional try to dominate the market,” Mullin said.
He added “We’re actively working with our trade companions – entities that maintain important management. However when such energy is misused, occasions like this can proceed to occur.”
Mantra additionally introduced a group AMA on X to additional make clear the incident. The mission warned customers to keep away from clicking on suspicious hyperlinks, as scammers are trying to take advantage of the scenario.
Notably, Binance – one of many world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges and the present itemizing venue for OM, issued an official assertion confirming that it’s carefully monitoring the continuing developments surrounding MANTRA. In a discover at this time, Binance said that it might droop buying and selling, delist the token, or apply different threat administration measures to guard customers if it detects severe violations associated to transparency or false itemizing disclosures.
Given the intense value volatility, disrupted liquidity, and unresolved considerations, analysts urge buyers to commerce OM cautiously to keep away from pointless monetary dangers.
This dramatic collapse additionally sparked an unexpectedly ironic twist, dragging a totally unrelated mission with the same identify – Manta, into the crossfire. Manta’s co-founder publicly clarified that their mission has no affiliation in any way with Mantra after confusion unfold as a result of related names.
Conclusion
The staff attributes the crash to exterior liquidations, however on-chain exercise and OTC deal experiences have fueled group skepticism.
With its tokenomics underneath scrutiny and belief within the mission rattled, Mantra’s path ahead hinges on transparency, swift communication, and structural reform. It stays unclear whether or not this marks a brief setback or indicators the beginning of a deeper unraveling.
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