OM Why the big dump? Latest news on the Mantra project.

According to market data from Gate.io, the current price of the OM token is $0.749, with a 24-hour drop of 88%. Just yesterday afternoon at 16:00, the price of the OM token was still $6.35. Starting from 17:00 Beijing time yesterday, the OM hourly chart continued to decline, but the drop each hour was not significant; until 2:00 AM Beijing time today, the OM token briefly fell over 80%, with the price dropping from $5.69 all the way down to $1.08; in the following hours, OM dropped again to around $0.37. What caused the drastic decline of the OM token, and does the leading token in the RWA sector have a chance to return to the public eye?

Why did OM plummet?

According to data from Coinglass, the total liquidation amount of OM in the last 24 hours exceeded $72.94 million, with long positions liquidating at $52.49 million. OM has become the altcoin with the second highest liquidation volume in the last 24 hours, following Bitcoin. Additionally, according to market data from Gate.io, the current circulating market value of the OM token is $703 million, which is a decline of over 90% compared to its market value peak of $8.25 billion reached in February this year.

According to monitoring by Lookonchain, before the collapse of OM (since April 7), at least 17 wallets deposited 43.6 million OM tokens (worth $227 million at the time) into CEX, accounting for 4.5% of the circulating supply. According to labels from Arkham, two of these addresses are associated with Laser Digital, which is a strategic investor in Mantra.

Analysts have pointed out that Mantra DAO is questioned for its token being infinitely inflationary, which severely dilutes its value, and that there are too few validating nodes, leading to high centralization risks. The market confidence has collapsed, triggering a wave of selling and large-scale long liquidations, exacerbating the decline.

Mantra Project Response

At 4:51 AM Beijing time today, after the OM token plummeted over 90%, the official X account of the Mantra project released a statement, claiming that today’s unusual fluctuations of OM were caused by “disordered liquidation” and are not related to the Mantra project itself, emphasizing that the incident was not caused by the team. The official statement indicated that they are investigating the specific reasons and will announce more details as soon as possible.

Mantra states that the timing and depth of the crash indicate that account positions were closed very suddenly, without sufficient warning or notification. This situation occurred during the low liquidity period in the early hours of Asian time, which at least suggests that there is a certain degree of negligence on the part of CEX, or it may be a deliberate market manipulation.

“CEX partners play a crucial role in providing liquidity for projects like ours. We work closely with them; however, they still have significant discretion. When this discretion is exercised without proper internal and external oversight, it can lead to market dislocations, as seen recently, harming the interests of projects and investors.”

It is important to clarify that this market misalignment is not caused by the team, the Mantra Chain Association, its core advisors, or investors in Mantra selling off tokens. The tokens remain locked and are subject to the announced vesting period. The tokenomics of OM remains unchanged, as we mentioned in our latest token report last week. Our token wallet address is online and visible.

As of the time of writing (15:00 Beijing time on April 14), the Mantra project team has not provided any further investigation details. The Gate.io blog team will continue to follow up on the latest developments of the project to provide feedback to all users.

OM Future Prospects

From the current situation, the future of the OM token is full of uncertainty and faces significant pressure in the short term. The token price plummeted by over 88% within 24 hours, reflecting not only the market’s serious doubts about its fundamentals but also exposing major flaws in the project’s mechanism design and risk control. OM has been criticized for issues such as unlimited issuance, insufficient nodes, and high centralization risk, which have exacerbated investor panic. Additionally, key investors transferring a large number of tokens to exchanges in advance has sparked speculation about “insider trading,” further undermining the foundation of trust.

Although the project party clarified that it is not related to the crash, the lack of effective and transparent follow-up investigations makes it difficult to regain market confidence. If a practical improvement plan and regulatory cooperation cannot be presented in the short term, OM is very likely to be gradually marginalized from being a leading project in the RWA track, and may even struggle to shake off the market label of “crash coin.”

Author: Icing, Gate.io researcher *This article only represents the author’s views and does not constitute any trading advice. Investment carries risks, and users should make cautious decisions. *The content of this article is original and copyrighted by Gate.io. If reprinted, please indicate the author and source; otherwise, legal responsibility will be pursued.