OM Token Crashes Overnight: Exchange Manipulation or Market Negligence?
According to the company behind the real-world tokenized asset network Mantra, exchanges abruptly and violently terminating positions without warning was the reason for the sharp decline in its native token. They also mentioned that one exchange, which is unnamed, might be the main culprit. Mantra quickly lost more than 90% of its $6 billion market capitalization as its price fell from $6.30 to less than $0.50 on April 13.
We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders. The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice. That this happened during low-liquidity hours on a Sunday evening UTC, early morning Asia time, points to a degree of negligence at best, or possibly intentional market positioning taken by centralized exchanges.
Mantra co-founder John Mullin
Mantra’s Mullin Breaks Silence: No Loans, No Rug Pull, Just Exchange Chaos
Mullin told an X user that they were still working out the specifics but that they thought one exchange, in particular, was to blame. He informed others that Binance was not the centralized exchange in question.
The collapse of the token, according to some traders, was a rug pull. Others believe that the Mantra team might have taken out a large loan from a centralized exchange using their tokens as collateral. Then, they were caught unawares when a loan risk parameter changed, resulting in a margin call. In follow-up X posts, Mullin refuted these rumors, claiming that the team had not planned a rug pull and had no outstanding loans.
Tokens remain locked and subject to the published vesting periods. OM’s tokenomics remain intact, as shared last week in our latest token report. Our token wallet addresses are online and visible,
Mullin
$564M in OM Transferred Just Days Before Price Plunge
Three days prior to the crisis, some OM whales transferred 14.27 million tokens to the cryptocurrency exchange OKX, according to a post published by blockchain analytics tool Spot On Chain on April 14 on X. The same whales collected 84.15 million OM for $564.7 million in March.
Now, after a brutal 90% drop, their remaining 69.08 million OM is worth just $62.2 million, putting their total estimated loss at a staggering $406.3 million. However, they may have hedged the position elsewhere, and it’s possible they contributed to the sharp drop.
Spot On Chain
Meanwhile, according to blockchain analytics website Lookonchain, since April 7, at least 17 wallets have transferred 43.6 million OM into cryptocurrency exchanges, which amounts to 4.5% of the total amount in circulation.
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