Mantra's Token Price Plummets 90% Amid Whale Dumps

Mantra (OM), a real-world asset tokenization protocol, experienced a dramatic collapse, with its token price plummeting by over 90% in a single day. The token dropped from a daily high of $6.34 to a low of $0.4222 before slightly recovering to $0.7597. This sudden crash has raised concerns and revived past allegations about the Mantra team and its history.

The sell-off appears to have been triggered by significant whale dumps. Blockchain analysis firm Lookonchain identified at least 17 wallets that dumped a total of 43.6 million OM tokens, worth $227 million at the time, into exchanges since April 7. This amount represented 4.5% of OM’s circulating supply, indicating a large-scale offload by major holders. Notably, two of the involved addresses were connected to Laser Digital, a known strategic investor in the Mantra project.

This massive sell-off led to a 2,919% spike in trading volume within 24 hours and a significant collapse in market capitalization from $6 billion to just $737 million. The token's ranking in global crypto rankings also dropped near the 80th place.

The chaotic price action has brought back older, serious questions about the Mantra project and its team. Crypto commentator WuBlockchain repeated his long-held worries, stating that Mantra DAO was composed of former members of the online gambling platform 21Pink. He also accused the team of falsely claiming investment from FTX, by the now-defunct exchange itself. In a December 2021 post, Wu highlighted backlash from crypto community leaders following OM’s listing on Binance, with critics labeling it a “fraud project” and pointing out the founding team’s history with questionable ICOs and casino ventures.

In response to the crash, Mantra took to X (formerly Twitter) to reassure its community, stating that the protocol is fundamentally strong and that the activity was triggered by reckless liquidations, not anything to do with the project. The team denied involvement and promised to investigate the situation and provide a detailed explanation soon. However, for many holders, the damage may already be done.

Looking at the daily chart, it is clear that OM entered a sharp downward move as sellers overwhelmed buyers. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) has entered the oversold region, reading a value of 15.68, confirming that the sellers are dominating. The gradient of the line suggests consolidation until buyers start gaining the upper hand. After losing the lower Bollinger Band support at $2.49, investors can expect OM to consolidate in the $0.4-$0.7 price level before reaching for the $1 price tag in the near future. A major resistance level is at the 20-day Exponential Moving Average (EMA) at $5.38.