🚨 The $OM story: from promised glory to an epic collapse. A lesson on how a Web3 project can shine or crumble in 2025 👇
In early 2024, Mantra burst onto the crypto scene with bold promises. Led by John Patrick Mullin, the project pitched a blockchain for real-world assets (RWA).
💥 Excitement exploded. Investors flocked in droves. The Mantra Ecosystem Fund was launched with $109 million, and om became the great hope of many.
🪂 In March 2024, Mantra announced a massive airdrop: $50 million in om for the community. But something felt off...
‼️ Before the launch, over 50% of wallets were purged, accused of being "bots" with no clear evidence.
🔐 Then came the next disaster: token release manipulation.
They promised 20% token unlocks.
Slashed it to a mere 0.3% daily, with sales locked for a month.
Then flipped again: only 10% in March 2025, the rest until 2027.
🗳️ The vote was a sham. They used a fake DAO where users had to lock tokens to vote, but the team rigged it with internal wallets.
🥷🏻 And in the shadows, something far shadier was brewing 👇
The shocking truth: Mantra’s team controlled 90% of $OM.
They dominated the market.
They manipulated governance.
They centralized everything, masquerading as decentralized.
The perfect storm was brewing. From April 3 to 13, 17 wallets moved $43.6 million in om (worth $227 million) to exchanges.
⛓️ Two wallets tied to Laser Digital (a Mantra investor) transferred:
$6.5 million in om to OKX ($41.6 million in value).
2.2 million om to Binance.
Another wallet, linked to Shane Shin (founder of Shorooq Partners), received $2 million in om just before the crash.
✅ All denied ties to these wallets, but the blockchain doesn’t lie.
The collapse hit hard.
At 7 PM, $OM plummeted.
Massive sell-offs flooded the market.
Billions of tokens tanked liquidity.
The price dropped over 90% in an hour.
Over $6 billion vanished from the market.
Binance cited “cross-exchange liquidations.” OKX called it “a scandal that rocked the crypto sector.”
💥 The aftermath was brutal:
Mantra’s social channels vanished.
Their official Telegram disappeared.
John Mullin only said: “My decision, my responsibility.” No apologies, no solutions, no explanations.
The community was left in ruins. They lost savings, were scammed by the airdrop, duped by the DAO, and betrayed by a project hyped as an RWA leader but was a front for an exit scam.
💡 Lessons from the disaster:
If the team holds 90% of tokens, it’s a trap.
A manipulated airdrop screams bad intentions.
Team-controlled governance is a disguised dictatorship.
If the price seems “too stable,” they’re setting you up to lose.
Track wallets, analyze data, and always ask: who’s profiting?