Mantra crashes by 90% due to suspicious activity
Mantra’s OM token crashes 90%, wiping out year-long gains.
Mantra’s OM token plummeted more than 90% within hours early Monday, erasing nearly a year’s worth of gains and triggering widespread concern across crypto markets.
The token, which supports Mantra’s real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform, fell from over $6 to just $0.40 during low liquidity trading hours, raising comparisons to the 2022 collapse of Terra’s LUNA, reports CoinDesk.
The project’s developers took to social media to defend Mantra’s fundamentals, attributing the crash to “reckless liquidations” and distancing themselves from the event. “One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team,” Mantra posted on X, promising further updates.
Mantra’s OM token had been among 2024’s best performers, bolstered by a high-profile partnership with UAE’s DAMAC Group to tokenize $1 billion worth of assets. Monday’s drop, however, saw over $50 million in long futures liquidated and open interest on OM contracts fall from $345 million to $130 million.
Exchange behavior under scrutiny as traders seek answers
Co-founder John Patrick Mullin blamed centralized exchanges for the price action, alleging “reckless forced closures” of OM positions and “intentional market positioning.” His comments fueled speculation about internal exchange actions, though some in the crypto community remain skeptical.
OKX founder Star Xu responded to the growing backlash by promising transparency. In a public post, Xu flagged over $220 million in token deposits to exchanges ahead of the crash and pledged to release relevant collateral and liquidation data. “It’s a big scandal to the whole crypto industry,” he wrote.
The crash has renewed calls for greater transparency in how exchanges handle leveraged trading and liquidation events. With Mantra’s team continuing to investigate the incident and major players like OKX now involved, the industry will be watching closely to see if the OM collapse leads to regulatory or reputational fallout.
For now, investors are left with sharp losses and few clear answers, as the broader market absorbs another blow to confidence amid rising scrutiny of centralized platforms.
Recently we wrote, that the cryptocurrency market experienced a brutal correction on “Black Monday,” as more than $1.4 billion in long positions were wiped out in a flash crash.
