Altcoin Loses Billions in a Day After Massive Sell-Out Leads to 90% Crash
On Sunday the Mantra's OM token plummeted from over $6 to below $0.50 in a matter o hours, wiping out more than 90% of its value and erasing billions from its market capitalization.
The sharp decline has stirred panic and speculation across the crypto community, with many questioning whether another major collapse is unfolding.
The abrupt nosedive has yet to be explained, and silence from the Mantra team only fueled growing fears. While some investors labeled the event a potential “rug pull,” others pointed to the broader fragility of the 2025 crypto landscape, already rocked by high-profile disasters like the Libra memecoin implosion and the massive Bybit hack.
Despite the ongoing uncertainty, Mantra’s leadership insists they aren’t abandoning ship. Co-founder JP Mullin took to social media to reassure users that the project remains intact. He shared a public wallet address containing the team’s holdings and emphasized that official community channels, such as the project’s Telegram group, are still active.
According to statements from the team, the crash was not the result of foul play but rather “reckless liquidations” that spiraled out of control. Still, many observers remain skeptical, given the scale and speed of the token’s collapse.
Ironically, this crisis comes just months after Mantra positioned itself as a rising force in real-world asset tokenization. In January, it inked a $1 billion deal with Gulf-based conglomerate DAMAC to bring a range of tangible assets—real estate, data infrastructure, and more—onto the blockchain.
The project’s ambitions had also been bolstered by regulatory approval in February, when Mantra secured a virtual asset license from Dubai’s VARA. The green light allowed it to expand operations across the UAE, offering trading, advisory, and asset management services in a region rapidly embracing blockchain infrastructure.
Mantra’s pitch to investors focused on real utility: faster cross-border transactions, cheaper asset issuance, and blockchain-based security for tangible investments. But after the events of April 13, that promise is under serious threat. Whether the team can rebuild trust—and value—remains to be seen.
Alex is Editor-in-Chief of Coindoo and co-founder of Millennial Media Group, with nearly a decade of experience covering financial markets - crypto first, then everything else. It started in 2016 with Bitcoin. Like most people at the time, he didn't fully understand it - so he kept digging. Blockchain, tokenomics, the projects, the cycles. That curiosity never stopped, and eventually pulled him into traditional markets too: equities, commodities, macro. Not because he left crypto behind, but because you can't properly understand one without the other. What drives him is straightforward: he wants to know why something is happening, not just that it's happening. Most market coverage stops at the headline - price up, price down, here's a chart. Alex finds that kind of reporting actively unhelpful. If you walk away from an article without understanding the mechanism behind the move, what did you actually learn? He holds a degree in Tourism from New Bulgarian University - not the most obvious path into financial markets, but markets have a way of pulling in people who are simply too curious to stay out. He has authored over 200 in-depth analyses and more than 10,000 articles across crypto and traditional finance. He still thinks every day in markets teaches him something new. That's probably why he hasn't stopped.
