The Mantra (OM) token, once a prominent player in the Real-World Asset (RWA) sector, experienced a dramatic collapse on April 13, 2025, plummeting over 90% from approximately $6.30 to below $0.50 within hours. This sudden downturn erased more than $5 billion in market capitalization and sent shockwaves through the crypto community.
📉 What Caused the Collapse?
The primary catalyst for the crash was a cascade of forced liquidations on centralized exchanges. Many investors had leveraged positions, and as the price began to decline, automatic margin calls triggered further sell-offs, exacerbating the downward spiral.
Mantra's CEO, John Mullin, attributed the collapse to "reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges" during a period of low liquidity. He emphasized that neither the Mantra team nor its investors were responsible for the sell-off, as their tokens remained locked per the project's vesting schedule.
Blockchain analytics platform Glassnode supported this claim, noting that there were no significant token inflows to exchanges before the collapse, suggesting that the initial crash was not due to insider selling.
🔥 Recovery Efforts
In response to the crisis, Mantra initiated several measures:
Token Burn: The team began burning 150 million OM tokens, reducing the total supply from 1.82 billion to 1.67 billion. This move aimed to decrease the bonded ratio and potentially boost staking returns.
Governance Reform: Plans were announced to improve the platform’s governance mechanisms, aiming to increase decentralization, transparency, and community trust.
Validator Reduction: At the TOKEN2049 event, Mullin revealed plans to cut the number of internal validators by half to restore trust and decentralize the network further.
📊 Current Status and Outlook
As of May 8, 2025, the OM token is trading at approximately $0.3675, reflecting a slight dip over the past 24 hours. Despite the recovery efforts, the token faces stiff resistance at around $0.48, and technical indicators suggest a bearish outlook.
