Blockchain investigator ZachXBT has linked the recent Mantra collapse to two individuals: Reef Finance founder Denko Mancheski and X user Fukugo Ryoshu.

The Montra Token, native to its real-world asset blockchain crashed over 90% on Sunday, plummeting from $6 to under $0.40 and erasing $5.2 billion in market value.

ZachXBT stated that his hypothesis comes from the two names that he keeps hearing when he talks about the Mantra incident is Denko and Fukogoryushu. He alleged that these two individuals have suspiciously reached out to a number of people, asking for massive loans against their OM in the days leading to the 90% crash.

These claims were confirmed by Vortex, an algorithmic market maker who confirmed that Fukugo has approached them with a similar request prior to the price plunge, further fueling suspicions-though no direct evidence of wrongdoings had been presented.

A case of insider trading?

ZachXBT's theory contradicts the broader community's speculation that the token crash could allegedly be linked to insider trading activity.

One of the alternate theories was presented by blockchain analysis platform Lookonchain, who seem to hint that the crash was a tied to major investors who have moved massive amounts of tokens to centralized exchanges just before the crash.

Based on the data from Arkham Intelligence, the two large investors responsible for the shift were Laser Digital, a Mantra investor, Shane Shin, and Shorooq. The data showed that Laser Digital moved 43.6 million OM tokens (worth around $227 million), while Shane Shin shifted 2 million OM tokens on the day of the crash.

Notably, Laser Digital and Shorooq Partners have both denied any involvement, asserting that the wallets in question are not under their control and that no OM tokens were sold from their allocations.

Shorooq further explained that the price collapse was triggered by a large forced liquidation during a period of low liquidity, which led to panic selling and a cascade effect.