MANTRA ($OM ) was one of the tokens that rode the early 2024 wave of enthusiasm around the Real World Assets (RWA) narrative. With big promises about tokenizing traditional financial products and positioning itself at the center of the regulatory-compliant DeFi movement, OM quickly gained traction. But by April 2025, the token had lost more than 90% of its value from its peak. What went wrong, and is there still hope for its future?
To answer this, we need to look beyond short-term volatility and dive into structural issues that affect not just OM, but many similar narrative-driven tokens.
1. The Classic Boom and Bust Pattern
OM followed a textbook trajectory of a speculative asset. The token experienced a rapid and aggressive price increase in a short time frame. Investors piled in, influenced by macro trends such as BlackRock’s tokenization experiments and Hong Kong’s push for regulated crypto frameworks. However, price action without underlying adoption is fragile. When momentum fades, the same investors who pushed the price up rush for the exits. The result is a liquidity vacuum and a violent drawdown.
A similar pattern was seen with tokens like ICP (Internet Computer) in 2021. It launched with huge expectations, reaching a market cap in the tens of billions, only to crash by over 95% as its real-world utility failed to meet the market’s inflated expectations.
2. Token Unlocks and the Hidden Pressure of VC Capital
Many investors underestimate the role of scheduled token unlocks. While a project may look healthy in terms of price action, once vesting cliffs are reached and early investors gain access to their tokens, sell pressure can overwhelm organic demand. OM’s price trajectory suggests that significant sell-offs occurred during or after such unlock periods.
We’ve seen this before with Optimism’s OP token. Despite strong fundamentals and ecosystem growth, OP saw periodic price drops that correlated closely with token unlock events, where large volumes entered the circulating supply.
3. Narrative ≠ Product
One of the most common traps in crypto investing is confusing narrative momentum with product traction. OM had a strong narrative — RWA tokenization, regulated DeFi, compliance-ready framework — but very few real products or users to show for it at the peak of its rally. Institutional partnerships may have been announced, but without actual product-market fit and usage metrics, these remain speculative promises.
This same issue plagued tokens like EOS and LUNA Classic. Both raised billions and delivered on a compelling vision, but ultimately failed to sustain user adoption or deliver on key milestones before collapsing under their own weight.
4. Psychological Capitulation and Retail Exit
Once a token loses 70 to 90% of its value, the market sentiment changes dramatically. Even the most loyal holders begin to question the validity of the project. Retail traders capitulate. Community activity fades. Volume dries up. At this stage, even small rallies are viewed with skepticism. Unless the team rebrands, reinvents the product, or introduces a fundamentally new direction, it becomes extremely difficult to regain momentum.
In OM’s case, we have seen signs of capitulation across social channels and copy-trading platforms. Traders who previously followed the project’s top performers are pulling out. Many users reported overleveraged decisions and impulsive trades from those managing capital. This creates another layer of distrust.
Can $OM Recover from This?
Theoretically, yes — if the team executes perfectly from here. That means delivering actual RWA products that are used in the real world. It means onboarding institutional capital, building liquidity, and rebuilding community trust. But the odds are long. Investors have many options, and once a token is labeled as a “rug” or a “VC dump,” it’s very hard to shake off that image.
The more realistic scenario is that $OM either consolidates at lower levels for a long time, or becomes a target for speculation in the next cycle when RWA becomes a hot narrative again. But even then, it would take a coordinated marketing and development push to make it relevant again.
Final Thoughts
OM’s downfall is not unique. It’s part of a broader pattern in crypto where strong narratives pump prices, but lack of execution kills momentum. As investors, we need to distinguish between hype and substance. Tokens like OM, ICP, EOS, and countless others have taught us this lesson before. Until real value flows through the products these tokens represent, any price action is just noise — and at worst, a trap.
