The price of MANTRA (OM) plummeted this weekend, wiping out 90% of its $6 billion market cap in a matter of hours.
The steep collapse sparked widespread speculation about insider activity—but the project’s CEO, John Patrick Mullin, says centralized exchanges are to blame.
Real-World Asset Project Hit by Forced Liquidations
MANTRA, a real-world asset (RWA) platform that recently announced billion-dollar tokenization deals in Dubaicovering real estate and data centers, saw its native token OM undergo a massive drawdown. As the token price crashed, X (formerly Twitter) users speculated that insiders may have rugpulled investors, pointing to a deleted Telegram group as part of the alleged cover-up.
Mullin quickly responded to the claims, denying any wrongdoing and sharing a link to the project’s still-active Telegram. He explained the channel had been temporarily taken down by a bot due to spam—not deleted.
“This was not a rugpull. The drop was caused by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mullin stated at the RWA Summit, according to Alphanonce.
Who’s to Blame?
While Mullin didn’t name specific exchanges, he hinted that the platform responsible for the forced closures “likely doesn’t begin with a ‘C’ or a ‘B’.” He further alleged that the liquidation occurred during low-liquidity hours, which could indicate either gross negligence or deliberate market manipulation.
Collateral Damage and Suspicious Wallet Activity
Mullin claimed that large investors using OM as collateral were liquidated without warning, triggering a cascade effect. He also promised a full post-mortem to clarify the incident.
Blockchain analysts, however, remain skeptical. According to Lookonchain, $12.6 million worth of OM was transferred to a wallet connected to venture capitalist Shane Shin just five hours before the collapse. That amount is now worth around $1.6 million.
Crypto sleuth ZachXBT criticized the transparency of MANTRA’s public wallet addresses, and Wu Blockchainresurfaced earlier allegations that MANTRA misrepresented investment ties with FTX.
Binance and Laser Digital Distance Themselves
Both Binance and Laser Digital (the digital asset arm of Nomura) have denied any current involvement in OM or responsibility for the price collapse.
As the dust settles, the crypto community is waiting for clarity from Mullin’s promised post-mortem. Until then, skepticism around MANTRA’s internal operations and token mechanics is likely to persist.
Kosta Gushterov
Reporter at Coindoo
Kosta has been a part of the team since 2021 and has solidified his position with a thirst for knowledge, incredible dedication to his work and a “detective-like” mindset. He not only covers a wide range of trending topics, he also creates reviews, PR articles and educational content. His work has also been referenced by other news outlets.
Source: https://coindoo.com/who-was-to-blame-for-mantras-90-crash-according-to-the-companys-ceo/