The sudden plummet in the price of the Mantra (OM) token caught many by surprise just before the start of the week’s trading. Mantra had long been considered a strong token, holding the top spot among Real World Assets (RWA) tokens. Such a drop in price during a market recovery period raised suspicions among investors. Initially trading above $6 with a trading volume below $100 million, the volume quickly surged to over $2 billion, causing the price to plummet by over 93% to a mere $0.43.
Why Did the Mantra (OM) Price Drop Drastically? Was it a Pre-Planned Rug-Pull?
The decline began with a single transaction from a wallet linked to the Mantra team, sending over 3.9M OM to Okex. This raised concerns as 90% of the token supply was controlled by insiders, posing a threat to the token’s value. The price tumbled from $6 to $0.48, wiping over $6 billion from the market.
A month prior, the platform conducted an airdrop and had blacklisted over 50% of wallets as ‘bots’ without transparency. This led to rumors that eroded trust in the token. Allegations surfaced that insiders were engaging in OTC token deals at a 50% discount, triggering panic selling, stop-loss cascades, and leverage liquidations, catching many off guard.
The crash in OM price has sent shockwaves through the crypto market, revealing the excessive greed within the Mantra team. The token had seen a 200x surge since Q3, 2023, driven more by market manipulation than fundamentals. Changes in tokenomics, insider control, delayed community airdrops, OTC deals, and inflation by Tier-1 market makers over the past two years contributed to the artificial rise.
What Lies Ahead for the Mantra (OM) Price? Recovery or the Next LUNA?
The initial sell-off of 4 million tokens on a low-liquidity weekend pushed the price below $3, causing losses for OTC buyers. This triggered a liquidation cascade, with MMs & OTC buyers rushing to sell first, resulting in a 90% crash. Meanwhile, the second-largest wallet was seen delegating and sending OM tokens to exchanges.
This orchestrated dump points to a rug-pull executed to deceive the community. The Terra ecosystem attempted to introduce a new token to salvage the platform, but failed, similar to the fate of the FTT token. Once investor confidence wanes, a token’s future becomes uncertain. Like the individuals behind the Terra & FTX collapse facing legal consequences, the founders and CEOs of Mantra may encounter a similar fate.
