What happened to MANTRA ($OM)?
MANTRA ($OM) is a Layer-1 blockchain project for tokenizing real-world assets (RWA), which plummeted from a star project to rock bottom overnight. Since the end of 2023, the price of $OM has surged 200 times, but in just one day in April 2025, the price plummeted by over 90%, wiping out billions of dollars in market value. This retrospective article will analyze how the suspected ‘Rug Pull’ event of $OM unfolded step by step — from manipulative tokenomics design, airdrop routines, to the chain reaction triggered by market-crushing sell-offs. We will also discuss famous cryptocurrency disasters like the ‘Squid Game’ scam and Terra LUNA crash) for comparison, and summarize the important experience that investors should learn from: how to identify highly concentrated supply, suspicious price increases, and other red flag signals.
OM’s 200x surge (Q4 2023 - Q1 2025)
By the end of 2023, the trading price of $OM was only a few cents, reaching a low of $0.017 in October 2023. However, in the following 18 months, $OM experienced a parabolic rise. By early 2025, the token had surged to nearly $9.00, more than 400 times higher than its historical low point (roughly 200 times higher from the price in Q4 2023), sparking strong attention in the crypto community.
Several key factors have driven this surge:
- RWA frenzy and major partnerships: MANTRA positions itself as a significant player in the tokenization of real-world assets, even reaching a $1 billion tokenization partnership with Dubai’s DAMAC Group in early 2024 and obtaining the Dubai VARA license. These developments have endorsed it, attracting a large amount of speculative capital.
Airdrop incentives and lock-up rewards: In mid-2024, MANTRA announced a ‘Genesis Airdrop’ of 50 million $OM tokens to early users and NFT holders. This ‘free coin’ promise attracted users to buy in and bridge $OM to MANTRA’s new mainnet (launched in 2024), while locking up a large amount of circulating tokens. - Supply Tightness and FOMO: By the end of 2024, the airdrop was repeatedly delayed, and the 50 million airdropped tokens never entered the market. Meanwhile, in October 2024, MANTRA increased the total supply of $OM from 8.88 billion to 17.8 billion, and switched to an 8% annual inflation model. Despite the nominal supply increase, the actual available tokens remained scarce, further exacerbating the imbalance between supply and demand. $OM surged from $1 to over $3, and in February 2025, briefly broke through $8.99, with a market cap reaching tens of billions of dollars.
Market Maker Trading Doubts: The community has begun to question whether this uptrend is real. Some traders have noticed abnormal order depth and transaction behavior, suspecting that market makers are controlling the market behind the scenes. In hindsight, Price trend Almost “too perfect,” linearly upward, making people suspect that insiders are driving the market.
Illustration: $OM between October 2023 and April 2025 Price trend From soaring to $9 from less than $0.02, then plunging to $0.5. This 200-fold surge followed by an immediate collapse is rare for a seemingly ‘legitimate’ project, revealing how the crypto market swiftly switches between frenzy and panic.
By spring 2025, the paper value of $OM had skyrocketed, and many early holders had achieved “financial freedom” (at least on paper). However, beneath the surface, a crisis was quietly brewing: whale wallets controlled the vast majority of the supply, and the long-promised airdrop was still nowhere to be seen. These factors ultimately culminated in the disaster known as the “MANTRA Collapse” on April 13, 2025.
90% Crash Full Review: Main Causes and Timeline
On April 13, 2025, $OM plummeted by over 90% in just a few hours, dropping from $6.30 to about $0.40, evaporating a market value of over 5 billion USD. The rapid collapse and deep decline have raised suspicions of rug pull or insider selling, despite the team’s claim of another reason. The following are the core factors leading to this ‘catastrophic $OM selloff’:
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Team/insider control 90% of the circulation: One of the biggest issues with $OM is the extreme centralization of the token. On-chain data shows that the MANTRA core team controls about 90% of the circulating tokens, with the top 100 addresses holding over 99%. This structure allows a few people to dump at any time, while also limiting public circulation, making it conducive to speculative pumping. Although the community has long been skeptical (some calling it ‘one of the biggest scams’), the team has not responded positively.
- Tokenomics Changes and Airdrop Delays: In October 2024, the project quietly doubled the total supply and introduced an inflation mechanism. This move, almost unnoticed during the bullish market at the time, reserved a large amount of tokens for the team. At the same time, the 50 million airdrop originally scheduled for Q1 2025 has been delayed multiple times and changed to 10% available in March 2025, with the remainder postponed to 2027. This ‘promising the moon’ behavior extends the release of supply, maintaining the price at a high level.
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Market makers operate and conduct off-exchange transactions: Several analysts called $OM Price trend Is manipulated by market makers. In the past year, the chart trend has been smooth with small fluctuations, suspected to have human intervention. At the same time, there are reports that the team is selling tokens to large holders through OTC at a 50% discount, enabling them to arbitrage at a high price in the public market.
Weekend liquidity drought: The crash occurred over the weekend, which means extremely low trading liquidity and scarce market buy orders. When a large amount of sell orders appear, the price plummets without any support, leading to a direct drop. Stop-loss orders are triggered continuously, further triggering panic selling.
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OKX sell-off incident (trigger): On the day before the market crash, on-chain analysis showed that an internal wallet transferred about 3.9 million $OM (worth about $25 million) to OKX, followed by selling nearly 4 million coins continuously, triggering panic. This event is likely the final straw that broke the market. A few days earlier, 5 million $OM were also unlocked and entered the market.
Panic and liquidation chain reaction: As the price plummeted, early large holders who bought at a low price through OTC also began to lose money and were forced to stop loss and escape. Some investors used leverage to long $OM. When the price fell below the liquidation line, the automatically liquidated, further creating selling pressure. A total of $75.9 million in $OM derivatives were liquidated in a single day.
Exchange fund inflow and Rug Pull allegations: Multiple whales transferred $OM to centralized exchanges before the crash, which usually signals an imminent dump. The community criticized the team for intentionally cashing out and running away, calling it the ‘biggest rug since LUNA/FTX.’ Although the project team denied it, attributing it to ‘whales being liquidated on CEX,’ the public is not convinced.
Illustration: On April 13, 2025, $OM dropped from $6.12 to $0.37 on Binance, evaporating over 90% in just four hours. The huge red trading volume bar in the chart indicates the intensity of the sell-off and the fragility of the order book, approaching the standard case of a top-level ‘Rug Pull.’
The project team subsequently denied selling off, claiming that the team’s holdings remained unchanged, and issued a statement on Telegram stating that external ‘force majeure’ caused it. However, considering the previous signs of highly centralized tokens, delayed airdrops, and inflows of funds on the chain, most people still see it as a planned escape event.
Comparison with historical crypto disasters (SQUID, LUNA, etc.)
The speed and scale of the collapse of the MANTRA token quickly triggered associations with several famous crypto disasters. Some experienced traders pointed out that the rise and collapse of OM are very similar to the following events:
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Squid Coin (SQUID) Rug Pull (2021): The situation most similar to OM is the 2021 ‘Squid Coin’ scam. SQUID is a copycat coin marketed with a popular series, with its price soaring over 40,000% in a few days, peaking at nearly $2,860. However, the development team quickly drained liquidity, causing the price to almost zero in minutes, with investors watching the token plummet from over $2,800 to $0.005. While OM did not drop to zero (bottomed at around $0.37), its structure of vertical rise followed by instant collapse is very similar. Both have highly concentrated token holdings and situations where tokens are dumped when liquidity is thin. The biggest difference between OM and SQUID is that MANTRA appears to be a ‘legitimate project’ with a real team and genuine partnership records, making its collapse even more shocking.
Terra LUNA Crash (May 2022): Another commonly mentioned comparison is Terra After the stablecoin mechanism collapse, LUNA’s price plummeted by over 99% in a matter of days. Following the initial crash, there was a brief rebound (known as a ‘dead cat bounce’), but it continued to decline, trapping many bottom fishers. Similarly, OM also rebounded from $0.37 to $1.10 the day after the crash (a 200% increase), but subsequently dropped over 92% from its peak. Chart analysts point out that such rebounds are common in the late stages of a crash but are usually traps. The current rebound trend of OM is gradually weakening, likely to repeat the tragedy of LUNA. Additionally, the ‘scandalous vibe’ surrounding MANTRA has sparked anger, echoing the public demand for regulation and liquidation after the LUNA crash years ago. Although OM did not collapse due to algorithm failure, the resulting evaporation of billions of dollars is comparable to the catastrophic consequences of LUNA.
In addition, there are also cases such as the 2018 BitConnect collapse (a typical Ponzi scheme coin) and the 2022 FTX/FTT collapse, which both illustrate one thing: if the price of a token is severely inflated and controlled by a few, then collapse is often just a matter of time. Although OM has been operating for over two years and has partners and resources, it still cannot escape tragedy, becoming another cautionary tale.
Investor Experience Summary: How to Identify Potential Red Flags
For investors who are still on the sidelines or have already ‘stepped on the landmine’, the OM incident has brought a profound warning. Although it is easy to review afterwards, there are actually many early signals that can be identified. Here are typical ‘red flags’ and suggestions worth paying attention to:
Token holding structure with excessive concentration: It is crucial to view the token distribution on-chain. The top 100 addresses of OM hold up to 99% of the supply, which is extremely unhealthy. When the majority of tokens are held by a very small number of people, Price trend Basically controlled by them. In general, healthy projects should avoid such structural risks.
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Sudden or opaque tokenomic adjustment: If a project quietly modifies its circulation and introduces inflation mechanisms, especially when no one is paying attention during a bull market, caution is warranted. MANTRA’s one-time doubling of supply and introduction of 8% annual inflation is a classic dilution tactic. Asking ‘why the change now?’ If the answer is vague, it can be assumed that risks are increasing.
Airdrops or unlocking promises are repeatedly delayed: Repeatedly delaying or changing the rules after promising a large airdrop is a typical ‘pump tool.’ MANTRA’s 50 million airdrop has been postponed multiple times, unfairly excluding some users from eligibility. In the short term, this does indeed suppress selling pressure, but in the long run, it severely overdrafts trust.
Price and trading volume abnormal: The price of a healthy project should be linked to market popularity, cooperation, and technological progress. If there is no obvious good news but continuous soaring, and the trading volume remains unusually stable, there is likely to be market manipulation. The trend of OM is ‘too perfect,’ almost like a manipulation template. - Key wallet transfers to exchanges: Many rug pull incidents have seen large amounts of tokens flowing into exchanges before they occur. If you notice the core wallet or whale address transferring coins to Binance, OKX, etc., you should immediately be on high . Tools like Whale can be used to monitor such transfers.
Low liquidity or reliance on a few market makers: If a currency has only a few trading pairs and weak liquidity, a slightly larger selling pressure may trigger a avalanche. OM is just such a case, with some liquidity even suspected to be maintained by the team itself. Once the market makers withdraw, the price drops sharply.
Low transparency in project communication: It is crucial for the project team to have open communication. MANTRA closed the Telegram group in the early stages of the incident and failed to respond positively, which was very unprofessional. In addition, its founder has been involved in litigation in the Hong Kong court, of which most investors are unaware. If the team’s external communication is negative or there is a tainted history, caution must be exercised.
Don’t be fooled by the ‘heat’: The seemingly limitless narrative (such as RWA) does not necessarily mean that the project has actually landed. OM’s story packaging is good, but the actual on-chain activity is very low. Whenever a certain coin suddenly becomes popular and the community is crazily spreading ‘can only go up,’ it is highly likely in the stage of pumping. Avoid FOMO at all costs, never heavily invest in a project solely supported by stories.
Conclusion
The story of MANTRA $OM reminds us: the crypto market is full of miracles and traps. A token that surged 200 times ultimately plummeted more than 90% in just one day, leaving many chasing the highs with nothing. Whether this crash was due to malicious manipulation or a series of bad decisions, investors are ultimately the victims.
This incident once again emphasizes: be sure to conduct sufficient due diligence, never take any project lightly. In the crypto world, ‘pump and dump’ is often the prelude to a ‘sharp decline’.
The question of ‘What happened to MANTRA ($OM)’ is actually a reminder for risk management in the entire crypto industry. It almost encompasses all potential issues: centralized control, token economy manipulation, weekend sell-offs, leverage crashes… In the future, when similar signals reappear, hopefully we can learn from this event and avoid becoming the next ‘bagholder’.
Friendly reminder: DYOR (Do Your Own Research), never blindly rush into the next ‘moon coin’.
