Mantra Crashes Further by Over 50% Amid Insider Trading Allegations
$OM price nosedives, MANTRA team tags "Forced Liquidations" as the cause of the sudden crash as allegations of insider trading gains momentum
MANTRA $OM token suffered a shocking collapse on Sunday, plunging over 98% within hours. The token’s price tumbled from $6.30 to under $0.50, erasing more than $5.5 billion in market cap.
Mantra’s co-founder, John Patrick Mullin, attributed the crash to massive forced liquidations initiated by a large investor on CEX. According to Mullin, the timing of the liquidations suggests negligence at best, as it slammed the market during a period of low liquidity.
However, despite reassurances from the team, panic spread quickly across the crypto community. Mantra’s public Telegram group was mysteriously deleted shortly after the collapse, flaming rumors of an internal crisis. The crash has drawn comparisons to past crypto disasters like Terra Luna.
Suspicious Wallet Activity Fuels $OM Insider Claims
Further scrutiny revealed shady on-chain activity in the hours before the crash. Several large wallets transferred millions of OM tokens to exchanges like OKX and Binance.
Lookonchain reported that at least 17 wallets deposited 43.6M $OM worth about $227M at the time, into exchanges accounting for around 4.5% of the circulating supply. Notably, a wallet tied to Binance reportedly sent 3.9 million $OM tokens worth over $36 million to OKX shortly before the token plummeted. These moves led to widespread speculation that certain players, having knowledge of the crash beforehand, positioned themselves to profit off an orchestrated liquidity drain.
Legal Headaches and Shattered Trust for MANTRA
The timing of the collapse could not be worse for Mantra, as the platform is already embroidered in legal battles. Last year, a Hong Kong court ordered six Mantra DAO members to release financial records in a lawsuit involving alleged misuse of DAO funds. This legal pressure and growing investor distrust have cast serious doubt over the project’s governance and long-term viability.
Just last week, the chain seemed poised for growth as it announced the launch of a $108 million investment initiative called the MANTRA Ecosystem Fund (MEF). The investors designed the investment to accelerate the growth and adoption of projects within its ecosystem.
Months ago, MANTRA also secured a $1 billion asset tokenization deal with real estate giant DAMAC and a regulatory license from Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA). However, these achievements now appear distant, given the token’s nosedive and intensifying controversies.
