The crypto market has just witnessed one of the most devastating price collapses in its history, as the project MANTRA crashed from around $6 billion market cap to just a few hundred million dollars in the span of only two hours.
It’s worth noting that between 2023 and 2025, MANTRA’s OM token experienced extraordinary growth, soaring from $0.017 in September 2023 to an all-time high of $9.17 in February 2025, delivering massive returns to some early investors.
1. The Background
MANTRA (OM) is a security-focused Layer 1 blockchain platform designed to tokenize and manage real-world assets (RWAs) in compliance with regulatory standards. Built using the Cosmos SDK, it supports Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) and CosmWasm smart contracts, enabling interoperability and scalability up to 10,000 transactions per second.
The platform offers a permissionless environment tailored for permissioned applications, making it suitable for institutional use. MANTRA’s ecosystem includes pre-built decentralized applications and partnerships with on and off-ramp solution providers, enhancing its utility and reach.
MANTRA’s native token, OM, serves multiple purposes within the ecosystem, including governance, staking, and accessing DeFi services. The platform also features a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) structure, allowing OM token holders to participate in decision-making processes.
Between 2024 and 2025, MANTRA’s OM token experienced remarkable growth, skyrocketing from $0.017 in September 2023 to an all-time high of $9.17 in February 2025, bringing massive returns to early investors.
MANTRA also partnered with Dubai-based DAMAC Group in early 2025 to tokenize $1 billion worth of real estate assets in the Middle East, underscoring its growing role in bridging traditional finance with blockchain technology.
The unexpected MANTRA crash struck at this time, while the project still showed strong potential, resulting in billions of dollars in investor losses.
2. The MANTRA Crash
On the morning of Sunday, April 14, 2025, the price of MANTRA ($OM) token unexpectedly dropped 10% from $6.2 to $5.6. It then continued to crash dramatically to around $0.5, a stunning 90% plunge in just 2 hours. This means that a project with a market capitalization of $6 billion evaporated to under $500 million in just a few short hours.
The crypto community immediately reacted strongly, with widespread criticism directed at the MANTRA team. On Telegram and X (Twitter), various theories of a historic rug pull began circulating. Many even compared this MANTRA crash incident to the infamous collapse of Terra (LUNA).
3. Is MANTRA Crash a Rug Pull Scheme?
A representative of MANTRA DAO quickly responded, firmly denying that the incident was a rug pull or a case of project abandonment. They explained that margin liquidations on a CEXs had injected a substantial amount of OM into an illiquid market on Sunday, triggering a cascade of forced liquidations and stop-loss orders that rapidly accelerated the price collapse.
MANTRA community – we want to assure you that MANTRA is fundamentally strong. Today’s activity was triggered by reckless liquidations, not anything to do with the project. One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details…
— MANTRA | Tokenizing RWAs (@MANTRA_Chain) April 13, 2025
JP Mullin, co-founder of MANTRA DAO, later addressed the false rumors circulating about the project. He clarified that MANTRA crashed due to the liquidation of several large positions on exchanges. The timing of these liquidations was especially sensitive, taking place over the weekend, a period that typically sees low market activity.
Mullin also confirmed that the project team’s OM token holdings remain untouched, and refuted claims that the Telegram group had been deleted, labeling such reports as misinformation. However, the explanations did little to ease concerns.
Many traders, investors, and community members are questioning the “reckless liquidation” explanation, citing the token’s thin liquidity and the suspicious speed of the crash as red flags.
Guys let’s get a couple things straight:
– The TG was not deleted.
– The Team tokens all remain in custody, verifiable at this address – mantra1yejpacug78zuqkzwwuc94c0a2al4mz4yfqquam
– We are actively figuring out why these massive forced liquidations occurred and will provide…— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) April 13, 2025
4. What Might Have Happened?
Data from CoinGlass reveals that nearly $68 million in OM positions were liquidated in the past 12 hours, an unusually high figure for an altcoin, even surpassing Bitcoin’s liquidation levels during the same period. Among them were 10 long OM positions, each valued at over $1 million.
The crash of $OM has led to $66.97M in liquidations over the past 12 hours.
10 positions were liquidated for over $1M each.https://t.co/MT0EgNW8ib pic.twitter.com/DUeB1j97Kq
— Lookonchain (@lookonchain) April 14, 2025
A detailed analysis by @traderview2 sheds light on how the structure of the futures market may have played a central role in the MANTRA crash. Examining over 15 million trades across Binance and Bybit, the data showed minimal selling pressure in the spot market, just around -$100K on Binance before the steep drop, with even slight net buying recorded on Bybit. It was, in fact, the perpetual futures (perp) market that drove the staggering -92% collapse.
$OM dumped -92% ($5.00 to $0.37) in 1 hour
Everyone’s blaming the team and guessing what happened
I pulled over 15 million trades from Binance & Bybit
Here’s what really happened 👇
— Dom (@traderview2) April 14, 2025
At 18:28:33 UTC, a $1 million sell order in the Binance perp market, coupled with a $125K spot sell, triggered a chain reaction of liquidations, wiping out $14 million in long positions in just one minute. This critical moment played a pivotal role in triggering the MANTRA crash.
The perp markets registered a negative notional delta of $41 million, accounting for roughly 88% of the total sell volume, while spot markets remained balanced and even showed a slightly positive net delta an hour later. This underscores how highly leveraged futures trading can have an outsized impact on price volatility, compared to the relatively stable nature of spot markets where assets are directly held.
5. Will MANTRA Price Recover?
Mullin stated that the team’s top priority right now is to restore OM’s price. To achieve this, MANTRA is implementing two key strategies:
- Token Buyback and Burn: The team is considering launching a buyback program. This would involve MANTRA purchasing OM tokens from the market using its own funds and burning them, a move aimed at increasing demand and supporting the token’s value.
- Deploying the $109 Million Ecosystem Fund: MANTRA has a $109 million ecosystem fund, which is now being redirected to support the OM token and help revive the project. This marks a significant sign of the team’s commitment to bringing OM back to its former price levels.
Since the price of MANTRA crashed by over 90%, it has shown some modest signs of recovery. The token briefly surged to $0.9 before gradually pulling back to the $0.5–$0.6 range. While there is still a long road ahead, the team stated that they are fully focused on rebuilding after the MANTRA crash. However, the big question remains: will investor confidence and capital ever return?
Conclusion
The MANTRA crash serves as a stark reminder of how quickly things can unravel in the crypto world, even for projects that once showed immense promise. While the MANTRA team denies any foul play and has outlined plans for recovery, the incident has left a deep scar on investor confidence.
Whether OM can regain its former glory remains uncertain, but the road ahead will undoubtedly be watched closely by the entire crypto community. For ongoing updates on the MANTRA and other major developments in the crypto space, follow the latest news on FMCPAY!