Things aren’t looking great for Mantra DAO. After its OM token took a brutal 90% nosedive in just one day, the team behind the project transferred nearly $27 million worth of OM to Binance—raising red flags among analysts and investors.
The price of OM tanked from a high of $6.28 to around $0.72 on April 14, wiping out more than $5 billion in market value. And while crypto markets are no stranger to big swings, this one felt different. The timing and scale of token movements sparked fresh worries about potential insider selling.
So what’s going on?
Mantra DAO, which focuses on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, still holds a massive chunk—about 90%—of the total OM supply. That’s a lot of power in the hands of insiders. And with more of those tokens being sent to exchange wallets, people are asking: is the team dumping on investors?
The team says no—blames liquidations
Mantra’s CEO, JP Mullin, tried to calm things down. He insisted the team didn’t sell any tokens. Instead, he blamed forced liquidations—automated sell-offs triggered by centralized exchanges—saying they caused the crash.
But not everyone is convinced.
Crypto analyst Max Brown pointed out that Mantra sent 3.9 million OM to OKX right before the plunge. That move only fueled the speculation that insiders might have sold off, triggering panic in the market.
Who’s telling the truth?
The tricky part? Once tokens hit centralized exchanges, it’s almost impossible to trace what happens to them. On-chain trackers can follow the transfers, but they can’t confirm whether the tokens were sold, held, or swapped.
Exchanges are now looking into it. Binance sided with the CEO, saying their early investigation suggests the crash was caused by cross-exchange liquidations. OKX, however, hinted at something deeper—pointing to changes in OM’s token structure and a noticeable uptick in deposits from insider wallets.
Bottom line
This event is a big wake-up call. With insiders holding the majority of a token’s supply, even the hint of a sell-off can shatter trust and cause massive damage. Whether this was insider dumping or just market mechanics gone wrong, the OM crash shows just how fragile investor confidence can be.
