The Mantra blockchain team believes that the drastic 90% drop in the value of its token could be due to sudden forced closures initiated by crypto exchanges without sufficient notice. According to John Mullin, the co-founder of Mantra, one exchange, in particular, may be to blame. He pointed out that the falls happened during low-liquidity hours, suggesting possible negligence or intentional market manipulation by the exchange.
Mantra’s token, OM, experienced a rapid drop from $6.30 to less than $0.50 on April 13. This dramatic decrease cost the token over 90% of its $6 billion market cap. Various theories have since been proposed about the cause of the drop. Some traders suggest this was a purposeful collapse, known as a “rug pull.” Others speculate that the Mantra team used their tokens as collateral for a large loan from a centralized exchange, which then suffered due to an unexpected change in loan risk parameters. However, Mullin dismissed these theories, emphasizing that no such loan existed and that there hadn’t been any manipulation of tokens.
After the fall of OM’s value, a minor recovery was observed, with the token momentarily exceeding $1. It is now down and trading around $0.7894, according to CoinGecko. The token reached its all-time high of nearly $9 on February 23 and has since fallen over 91% from that figure.
Blockchain analysis platforms have noted significant movements of Mantra tokens before the dramatic fall. Spot On Chain reported that large token holders moved 14.27 million tokens to the OKX crypto exchange three days before the fall. Analysis by Lookonchain also showed that between April 7 and the fall, at least 17 wallets deposited 43.6 million OM into crypto exchanges, equivalent to 4.5% of the circulating supply.
Despite this setback, Mantra continues its business operations. In January 2025, the organization signed a $1 billion deal with investment conglomerate DAMAC to tokenize the latter’s various assets.