MANTRA's CEO Blames Exchanges for $5.431 Billion Token Collapse

The CEO of a prominent real-world asset (RWA)-focused cryptocurrency project has accused centralized exchanges of contributing to the abrupt collapse of the project’s native token. The market capitalization of the top RWA project, MANTRA (OM), experienced a dramatic drop of $5.431 billion on Sunday, plummeting from over $6.11 billion to $683.3 million within a few hours. This sudden decline has raised significant concerns within the cryptocurrency community.

JP Mullin, the CEO of Mantra, took to the social media platform X to express his allegations. He asserted that the crash was precipitated by centralized exchanges that allegedly closed large positions during low-liquidity hours without sufficient warning or notice. Mullin’s statement highlighted the potential negligence or intentional market manipulation by these exchanges, which occurred during early morning hours in Asia, a time known for lower trading activity. This timing, according to Mullin, suggests a lack of oversight and discretionary powers exercised by the exchanges, leading to significant market dislocations that negatively impacted both the project and its investors.

Mullin emphasized that the Mantra team did not engage in any actions that could have contributed to the collapse of OM. He also ruled out Binance as being involved in the incident, stating unequivocally that it was not responsible for the loss of value. At the time of writing, the price of OM had fallen to $0.51, representing a 91.2% decrease in the last 24 hours alone.

The allegations by Mullin underscore the broader issues within the cryptocurrency ecosystem, particularly the role of centralized exchanges in providing liquidity and the potential risks associated with their discretionary powers. The incident serves as a reminder of the need for greater oversight and transparency in the operations of these exchanges to prevent similar disruptions in the future. The cryptocurrency community will be closely monitoring the developments surrounding this incident and the potential regulatory responses that may follow.