tl;dr
The MANTRA (OM) token experienced a severe price collapse on April 13, plummeting over 90% in less than an hour and losing more than $5.5 billion in market capitalization. Reports suggest that a large token deposit linked to the MANTRA team triggered concerns about insider activity and price manipul...
The MANTRA (OM) token experienced a severe price collapse on April 13, plummeting over 90% in less than an hour and losing more than $5.5 billion in market capitalization. Reports suggest that a large token deposit linked to the MANTRA team triggered concerns about insider activity and price manipulation. Allegations of lack of transparency and undisclosed over-the-counter deals have further fueled community frustration and speculation. The MANTRA team denies initiating the sell-off and attributes the crash to forced closures by centralized exchanges. The broader crypto community awaits further updates and demands transparency and accountability. The impact of the crash on the Real World Assets (RWA) market was significant, with a 13.3% drop in market capitalization. Despite the short-term impact, projections indicate strong long-term growth for tokenized RWAs, suggesting that the MANTRA incident may be an isolated event unlikely to derail the broader RWA market's potential and growth trajectory. The MANTRA (OM) token suffered a catastrophic price collapse on April 13. The altcoin plummeted over 90% in under an hour, wiping out more than $5.5 billion in market capitalization.
The sudden crash took OM from a high of $6.33 to below $0.50. Notably, it has drawn comparisons to the infamous Terra LUNA meltdown, with thousands of holders reportedly losing millions. Multiple reports suggested that the trigger is a large token deposit linked to a wallet allegedly associated with the MANTRA team. Onchain data showed a deposit of 3.9 million OM tokens to OKX, sparking concerns about a possible incoming sell-off. Given that the MANTRA team reportedly controls close to 90% of the token’s total supply, the move raised immediate red flags about potential insider activity and price manipulation.
The OM community has long expressed concerns about transparency. Over the past year, allegations have surfaced suggesting the team manipulated the token’s price through market makers, changed tokenomics, and repeatedly delayed a community airdrop. The OKX deposit amplified fears that insiders might be preparing to offload. Reports also indicate that MANTRA may have engaged in undisclosed over-the-counter (OTC) deals, selling tokens at steep discounts—in some cases, 50% below market value. Thus, the rapid decline in OM’s price pushed these OTC investors into losses. This allegedly sparked a mass exodus as panic selling took hold. The chain reaction triggered stop-loss orders and forced liquidations on leveraged positions, compounding the collapse.
The project’s official Telegram channel was locked during the fallout, which added to community frustration and speculation. Nonetheless, the MANTRA team has denied all allegations of a rug pull. They maintain that the members did not initiate the sell-off. In a public statement, co-founder John Patrick Mullin said the team is investigating what went wrong and is committed to finding a resolution.
If OM fails to recover, this would mark one of the largest collapses in crypto history since the Terra LUNA crash in 2022. Thousands of affected holders are now demanding transparency and accountability from the MANTRA team while the broader crypto community waits for answers. Meanwhile, Binance Support stated that the price crash was due to cross-exchange liquidations and highlighted the platform's risk controls and warnings to users. The ripple effects of the OM crash were felt with a 13.3% drop in the market capitalization of Real World Assets (RWA).