Today in crypto, Mantra CEO John Mullin denied reports of insider sales by investors, including Laser Digital, ahead of the OM token’s 90% crash — despite onchain data suggesting otherwise. Mullin also pointed to one exchange in particular, which the Mantra team believes may have played a role in the token’s collapse.
Mantra CEO denies insider OM token dump, says Arkham “mislabeled” wallets
Mantra CEO John Mullin denied reports suggesting large-scale token transfers by major Mantra investors in the days leading up to the sharp collapse of the OM token, while speaking in an AMA hosted by Cointelegraph on April 14.
“The Mantra association, our key investors, our advisers — no one has sold, and we are going to categorically deny and also provide verifiable proof onchain proof that this is the case,” Mullin stated in the AMA.
Previous reports suggested that Laser Digital, a strategic Mantra investor, cashed out large portions of Mantra (OM) tokens before the cryptocurrency collapsed on April 13.
At least two wallets linked to Laser Digital were among 17 wallets that moved a combined 43.6 million OM tokens — worth about $227 million at the time — to exchanges before the crash, the blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported on April 13, citing Arkham Intelligence data.
Source: Lookonchain
Laser Digital is a digital asset business backed by Nomura. The firm announced a strategic investment in Mantra in May 2024.
According to Arkham data, one Laser Digital-linked wallet had moved about 6.5 million OM tokens ($41.6 million at the time) to OKX in seven transactions since April 11.
The last recorded transaction from the wallet occurred on April 11 at around 10:00 pm UTC, days before the Mantra crash, which took place on April 13 at roughly 7:00 pm UTC, according to data from CoinGecko.
Another wallet sent about 2.2 million OM (worth $13 million) to Binance in a series of transfers starting April 3.
The data also indicated that Laser Digital may have started reducing its OM holdings as early as February. The wallets linked to the firm reportedly received a large portion of their OM from crypto trading firm GSR in 2023.
Mantra (OM) outflows from one of the wallets linked to Laser Digital. Source: Arkham
Laser Digital subsequently denied reports alleging its involvement in the OM volatility, claiming that the referenced wallets did not belong to it.
Mantra says one exchange “in particular” may have caused OM collapse
The team behind real-world tokenized asset blockchain Mantra says its native token’s sudden 90% plunge was caused by exchanges forcibly closing positions without notice, with one currently unnamed exchange potentially to blame.
On April 13, Mantra (OM) price dropped from $6.30 to below $0.50, rapidly shedding over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.
Source: John Mullin
“We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mantra co-founder John Mullin wrote in an April 13 statement on X.
“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” he added.
Mullin told an X user they believe one exchange “in particular” was to blame but said they were still “figuring out the details.” He told others that the centralized exchange in question wasn’t Binance.
Mantra token collapses by 90% but retraces some value
The price of the Mantra token collapsed by over 90% on April 13 but regained some lost value following statements from the Mantra team and co-founder JP Mullin.
Mantra’s (OM) price collapsed to a low of approximately $0.38 before crossing back over $1, and is currently at that level.
Mantra token price and overview. Source: CoinGecko
According to the Mantra team, OM’s price decline was due to “reckless liquidations” that the Mantra team is investigating.
“One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details about what happened as soon as we can,” the team wrote in an April 13 X post.
