This weekend, the price of the MANTRA token (OM) misplaced 90% of its $6 billion market cap, a collapse that, based on its CEO, was the work of centralized exchanges initiating “reckless forced closures” and never a rugpull.

MANTRA is a real-world asset (RWA) mission that signed a billion-dollar take care of Dubai builders to tokenize numerous property, together with actual property and knowledge facilities. 

As its price dropped, X customers speculated that MANTRA insiders could have rugpulled the token and claimed that its telegram chat was deleted through the drop.

Nonetheless, MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin refutes these claims. Mullin denied any notion of insider promoting and supplied a hyperlink to the still-online MANTRA telegram chat, claiming that its bot briefly shut it down after detecting spam. 

Learn extra: CZ instructed to ‘give up the scamming’ in X spat with Ari Paul

Who’s accountable?

Mullin attributes OM’s drastic price drop to “reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders” with out warning. He additionally suggests, with out giving names, that one trade could possibly be accountable and that it seemingly doesn’t start with a “C” or a “B.” A few of the largest exchanges that checklist OM embody Binance, OKX, Bybit, Crypto.com, and MEXC.

Mullin additionally stated the timing of the incident throughout low liquidity hours “points to a degree of negligence at best, or possibly intentional market positioning taken by centralized exchanges.”

Alphanonce reported that Mullin addressed the incident at RWA Summit, claiming, “Large investors using $OM as collateral were liquidated,” and {that a} “post mortem” is coming quickly. 

Each Binance and crypto funding agency Laser Digital have distanced themselves from OM’s token fallout. Lookonchain additionally notes how 5 hours earlier than the collapse, $12.6 million value of OM was despatched to a pockets linked to enterprise capitalist Shane Shin. This sum is now value roughly $1.6 million. 

Crypto sleuth ZachXBT was additionally not impressed with considered one of MANTRA’s public addresses, whereas Wu Blockchain highlighted how MANTRA has lied about FTX investments up to now. 

Acquired a tip? Ship us an e mail securely through Protos Leaks. For extra knowledgeable information, observe us on X, Bluesky, and Google Information, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.