MANTRA's OM Token Plummets 90% Amid Insider Trading Accusations

MANTRA's latest price was $0.5120, down 5.739% in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency, a prominent player in the Real-World Assets (RWA) sector, has recently faced significant challenges, including a dramatic collapse in its token value. On April 13, the OM token experienced a staggering 90% drop in value within a single hour, resulting in the loss of over $5.5 billion in market capitalization. This sudden crash triggered widespread accusations of insider activity and market manipulation within the RWA sector. The plunge followed a rapid surge earlier in the year, where OM rose from $0.013 to over $6, pushing its fully diluted valuation to $11 billion. The crash was reportedly triggered by a $40 million token deposit into OKX by a wallet allegedly linked to the team, sparking fears of insider selling. Panic spread quickly as rumors of undisclosed OTC deals, delayed airdrops, and excessive token supply concentration fueled mass liquidations across exchanges. Despite co-founder John Patrick Mullin denying any wrongdoing and blaming centralized exchanges for forced closures, investors and analysts raised concerns about potential manipulation by market makers and CEXs, drawing comparisons to past collapses like TerraLUNA.

In response to the crisis, MANTRA CEO, JP Mullin, has taken proactive steps to restore investor trust. He announced the permanent burn of 150 million OM tokens from his own allocation and is engaging other ecosystem partners to burn an additional 150 million tokens. This 300 million OM token burn aims to stabilize the altcoin’s price dynamics and rebuild confidence in the project. The tokens, originally staked at the mainnet launch in October 2024, are now being unbonded and will be fully burned by April 29, reducing OM’s total supply from 1.82 billion to 1.67 billion. This move also lowers the network’s staked amount by 150 million tokens, which could impact on-chain staking APR. Additionally, MANTRA is in talks with partners to implement a second 150 million OM burn, potentially cutting the total supply by 300 million tokens. The unstaking of these tokens is now underway and expected to be completed by April 29, at which point the tokens will be sent to a designated burn address and permanently removed from circulation. This initiative is designed to restore community trust and improve the platform’s economic structure after its value plummeted by over 90% in the last 24 hours in mid April. The tokens were originally staked at the October 2024 mainnet launch to help bootstrap network security. Their removal will reduce MANTRA’s (OM) total token supply from 1.82 billion OM to 1.67 billion OM. As a result, the number of staked tokens will drop from 571.8 million to 421.8 million OM, reducing the bonded ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%. This decrease in the bonded ratio is expected to raise on-chain staking rewards. CEO and Founder John Patrick Mullin, who previously staked 772,081 team tokens on Fluxtra, confirmed he is also burning his full allocation of 150 million OM. This follows his public commitment last week to relinquish all team-held tokens as part of the broader burn initiative. In addition to the team burn, MANTRA says it is in active discussions with ecosystem partners to coordinate an additional 150 million OM token burn. If successful, the total amount burned will reach 300 million OM. The burn can be tracked on-chain through transaction hashes provided by MANTRA. Once finalized, full verification of the burn will be made publicly available, according to the project.

Despite MANTRA’s ongoing token burn efforts, it’s still uncertain whether the move will be enough to fully restore investor confidence in OM. From a technical standpoint, if momentum begins to recover, OM could test the immediate resistance at $0.59. A successful breakout at that level may pave the way for further gains toward $0.71, with additional key hurdles at $0.89 and $0.997 standing between the token and a return to the psychologically important $1 mark. However, reclaiming these levels will likely require sustained buying interest and broader sentiment recovery across the Real-World Assets (RWA) sector. On the downside, if the token burn fails to shift sentiment or if selling pressure continues, OM risks resuming its decline. The first key support lies at $0.51, and a breakdown below that level could send the price further down to $0.469. Given the scale of the recent crash and the lingering distrust among investors, the path to recovery remains fragile—OM now sits at a critical crossroads between a potential rebound and further erosion of its market value.

Following the $17 million loss by a major whale, on-chain activity revealed signs of quiet re-entry among large holders. In fact, large transaction volume has ticked up by 2.64%, hinting at early-stage accumulation as opportunistic players take advantage of the steep dip. While the hike seemed modest, it might hint at a subtle shift in sentiment among deep-pocketed participants. If this trend continues, it could strengthen OM’s base and cushion further downside. Meanwhile, traders in the derivatives market have been showing an aggressive bullish bias. Data from Binance revealed that 70.62% of accounts are long on OM, with only 29.38% positioned short. The resulting long/short ratio of 2.40 indicated high conviction for a rebound. However, such positioning also raises downside risk if momentum fails to follow through. Overcrowded long trades may trigger cascading liquidations if OM faces renewed weakness. Therefore, while whales and traders might be leaning bullish, the market will remain vulnerable to quick swings if optimism overextends itself too early.

OM is sitting at a key turning point right now. Everything seems to be pointing to a market on edge. However, long-biased traders, reduced leverage, and a modest pickup in large transactions may offer early signs of strength. If selling slows and accumulation grows, OM could pivot from capitulation to recovery. Therefore, while the road remains uncertain, conditions may align for a potential bounce.