OM Token Crashed 90% Due to Forced Liquidations, Says MANTRA Co-Founder

Highlights:

• OM token dropped sharply on April 13, erasing over $6 billion in market cap.
• Mantra’s team denied responsibility for the crash, blaming reckless liquidations and promising updates.
• Co-founder Mullin assured the community that all team tokens remain locked, with no vesting changes.

​The native token of the MANTRA blockchain project, OM, experienced a dramatic decline on April 13, plummeting from approximately $6.30 to below $0.50 within a single day. This sharp decline erased over 90% of its $6 billion market capitalization in less than 24 hours.

After the price crash, OM saw a slight recovery, briefly rising above $1. However, it has since dropped again and is now trading at around $0.7794, according to CoinGecko. Some traders called the crash a possible rug pull, comparing it to past disasters like Terra’s LUNA and the FTX collapse.

Mantra’s team posted on X, saying the token remains strong despite the sudden drop. They blamed the fall on reckless liquidations and denied any link to the team or project. They also said they’re investigating the price crash and will share updates soon. In a post on X, co-founder John Patrick Mullin said a big OM investor was forcefully liquidated on a centralized exchange. He didn’t name which exchange it was. Later, Mullin clarified they hadn’t deleted the Telegram group.

Mullin Denies Accusations of Token Dumping

Some people accused MANTRA of dumping their own tokens, but Mullin rejected those claims. He stated the crash wasn’t caused by the team, investors, advisors, or the MANTRA Chain Association. He added that all team and investor tokens are still locked as per the public vesting plan. Mullin also said the token’s basic structure hasn’t changed.

Sherpas, OMies, and broader crypto community,

First off, the team and I greatly appreciate the support that we have received over the past several hours, which we believe is a testament to the strong support MANTRA has among its investors and community.

We have determined that…

— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) April 13, 2025

MANTRA, the first DeFi project licensed by Dubai’s VARA, plans to hold a community talk on X to discuss the recent crash. However, many in the crypto space still weren’t satisfied and felt the statement lacked clarity. Mantra’s co-founder said they’re working to understand why the large liquidations happened. He promised to share more details soon and assured the community that they’re not leaving.

Binance and OKX See Large OM Token Movements

X user Insomniac, who leads governance at Castle Labs, pointed out three wallets that moved large amounts of $OM tokens to Binance and OKX. One wallet received about $36 million in $OM from a Binance address on March 21. Then, on Saturday, it sent around 4.3 million $OM to OKX in eight separate transactions. Six members of the MANTRA DAO were previously instructed by a Hong Kong court to release financial records linked to the project. This followed accusations of misappropriating DAO assets in a lawsuit.

Moreover, Binance shared on X that its initial analysis points to cross-exchange liquidations as the cause. They also mentioned that since January, a pop-up alert has been displayed on their spot trading page for $OM. This alert notifies users about significant changes to the token’s economics, such as a sharp rise in supply.

Binance is aware that $OM, the native token of MANTRA, has experienced significant price volatilities. Our initial findings indicate that the developments over the past day are a result of cross-exchange liquidations.

Since October of last year, Binance has implemented various…

— Binance Customer Support (@BinanceHelpDesk) April 14, 2025