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 some of the extreme price meltdowns in crypto historical past.
About Mantra, it’s a Layer 1 blockchain undertaking 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 Mission to a Luna-Model Meltdown
In accordance 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.
Consequently, 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 speed and scale since the 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 alternate simply earlier than the crash occurred. The group now suspects the pockets belongs to an insider from the undertaking.
Moreover, in accordance with a report from BeInCrypto, the Mantra workforce was concerned in undisclosed over-the-counter (OTC) transactions, allegedly promoting tokens at reductions of up to 50% in comparison with market costs.
“MANTRA has a highly centralized token distribution structure, with over 85% of the total supply held by the team and strategic investors. An internal sell-off could easily trigger a domino effect,” Lookonchain commented.
Who dropped the price of $OM?
Earlier than the $OM crash(since Apr 7), no less than 17 wallets deposited 43.6M $OM($227M on the time) into exchanges, 4.5% of the circulating provide.
In accordance 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 in opposition to the Mantra workforce. Some social media customers started digging into the workforce’s previous, mentioning that WuBlockchain had beforehand warned that sure key members of the undertaking had been allegedly linked to the net playing platform 21Pink.
WuBlockchain warned the danger of MANTRA DAO in 2021. It’s composed of a number of core members of the net playing platform 21Pink. OM as soon as falsely claimed to have acquired 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 acquired funding from FTX, an announcement later publicly denied by the now-defunct alternate.
“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 workforce, the MANTRA Chain Affiliation, or inside traders within the sell-off. He emphasised that every one tokens stay locked underneath the publicly disclosed vesting schedule and that every 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 point to an unexpected position closure with no warnings or prior notice. Such an incident highlights a lack of oversight by centralized exchanges and may reflect an intentional attempt to dominate the market,” Mullin said.
He added “We are actively working with our exchange partners – entities that hold significant control. But when such power is misused, events like this will continue to happen.”
Mantra additionally introduced a group AMA on X to additional make clear the incident. The undertaking warned customers to keep away from clicking on suspicious hyperlinks, as scammers are trying to use 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 right now, Binance said that it could droop buying and selling, delist the token, or apply different danger administration measures to guard customers if it detects severe violations associated to transparency or false itemizing disclosures.
Given the acute price volatility, disrupted liquidity, and unresolved issues, analysts urge traders to commerce OM cautiously to keep away from pointless monetary dangers.
This dramatic collapse additionally sparked an unexpectedly ironic twist, dragging a totally unrelated undertaking with an analogous identify – Manta, into the crossfire. Manta’s co-founder publicly clarified that their undertaking has no affiliation in anyway with Mantra after confusion unfold because of the comparable names.
Conclusion
The workforce attributes the crash to exterior liquidations, however on-chain exercise and OTC deal reviews have fueled group skepticism.
With its tokenomics underneath scrutiny and belief within the undertaking 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 alerts the beginning of a deeper unraveling.
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