Mantra Token Tanks 90% and Wiped Out $5.2B Market Share, Team Denies Dumping

The price of Mantra’s OM token—native to its real-world asset (RWA) blockchain—crashed over 90% on Sunday, plummeting from $6 to under $0.40 and erasing $5.2 billion in market value.

The abrupt collapse has sparked comparisons to the dramatic meltdowns of Terra LUNA and FTX in 2022, while also fuelling allegations of insider trading tied to suspicious token movements.

Mantra co-founder John Patrick Mullin stated on X (formerly known as Twitter):

"The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice."

Mullin pushed back, claiming certain positions were “closed without margin calls or notice,” implying that forced liquidations on centralised exchanges (CEXes) may have triggered the price spiral.

In an official statement, the team labelled the event a result of “reckless liquidations.”

The crash marks one of the most severe single-day losses in crypto this year and has reignited debate over CEX practices and the structural resilience of RWA tokens.

CoinGecko data shows OM briefly dipped to $0.37 during low-liquidity hours before rebounding slightly to $0.80—still down more than 90% from its February high of $8.99.

It is currently trading at $0.7712, a 87.67% decrease in the last 24 hours.

Additionally, data from Arkham Intelligence reveals that Mantra DAO burned around 21 million OM tokens in separate transactions on 2 April, further adding to the speculation.

Insider Trading or Forced Liquidation?

The crypto community is closely scrutinising the circumstances surrounding Mantra’s token collapse, with several voices alleging that the team may control up to 90% of the OM supply—raising suspicions of a coordinated sell-off.

Some traders have even gone so far as to label the event a potential “rug pull.”

Market investor Gordon wrote:

"[The] team needs to address this or OM looks like it could head to zero, biggest rug pull since LUNA/FTX?"

According to blockchain analytics platform SpotOnChain, a group of OM whales transferred 14.27 million tokens—worth approximately $91 million—to OKX just three days before the crash, at an average price of $6.375.

The same group had earlier accumulated 84.15 million OM, valued at roughly $564.7 million, on Binance in March.

While their remaining holdings of 69.08 million OM are now worth only around $62.2 million, SpotOnChain noted it is possible the whales hedged their exposure elsewhere, potentially playing a role in the token’s sharp decline.

Further on-chain analysis by Lookonchain identified at least 17 wallets that collectively moved 43.6 million OM—then worth about $227 million—to exchanges, representing 4.5% of the token’s total supply.

Two of these wallets, as tagged by Arkham Intelligence, are reportedly linked to Laser Digital, a known strategic investor in Mantra.

Mantra Denies Team Involvement, to Host Community Connect on X Soon

Mullin has addressed the dramatic collapse of the OM token, assuring the community that the project remains active and transparent.

In a post on X, Mullin emphasized that the team’s tokens remain securely in custody, providing a verification address to support his claim.

He stated, noting that the project’s Telegram group is still online and operational:

“We are here and not going anywhere.”

Responding to widespread speculation of insider trading and a potential “rug pull,” the Mantra team firmly denied any internal wrongdoing.

They attributed the sudden 90% plunge in OM’s value to “reckless liquidations,” not team activity.

According to their statement, the team's token allocation remains locked and can be verified on-chain.

The incident has raised concerns about leveraged trading on CEXes.

Mullin criticised the opaque nature of exchange liquidations, warning that “when such powers are used without oversight, dislocations like what recently happened can and will occur, hurting both projects and investors alike.”

The fallout threatens to strain Mantra’s high-profile partnerships, including those with Google Cloud and Dubai’s DAMAC Group.

Hank Huang, CEO, Kronos Research, expounded:

“The reported hack of MANTRA’s OM token is a stark reminder that the RWA sector is still in its infancy, with much work needed to build truly resilient infrastructure. As traditional giants like BlackRock move into tokenized real-world assets, the pressure to establish robust compliance, security, and transparency frameworks is mounting. Incidents like this test investor confidence and raise a critical question about how to ensure tokenized assets can be made safer for mainstream adoption.”

Huang commented that the turmoil highlights how early-stage the RWA tokenisation sector still is—pointing to the urgent need for stronger infrastructure, compliance, and transparency.

At today’s inaugural MANTRA RWA Summit in Seoul, held in partnership with BTCON, Korea’s pioneering Bitcoin conference, Mullin wasted no time in tackling the burning question: the reason behind the sudden and concerning drop in the OM token’s value.

Despite the team's explanations, many in the crypto community continue to question the lack of transparency and have called for a clearer breakdown of events.

Mullin argued:

"When discretionary powers are exercised without due internal and external oversight, dislocations like what recently happened can and will occur, hurting both projects and investors alike."

Mullin said the team is working on compiling a full account of the situation.

In the meantime, a Community Connect session is scheduled on X in the coming hours to address concerns directly.

The coming days will be pivotal for Mantra, as it works to restore investor confidence and clarify what led to one of the steepest crypto crashes of the year.