04-14-2025, 08:20 AM
Here’s what happened in crypto today
<p style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 15px; width:240px;"><img src="https://images.cointelegraph.com/images/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjUtMDEvMDE5NDgzZjctMTdlYS03OTc0LWJlNzMtNjYxYzdjZDE1N2M3.jpg"></p><p><p style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 15px; width:240px;"><img src="https://images.cointelegraph.com/images/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjUtMDEvMDE5NDgzZjctMTdlYS03OTc0LWJlNzMtNjYxYzdjZDE1N2M3.jpg" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"></p><p>Today in crypto, the price of the Mantra token collapsed. Its co-founder says they believe it may have been caused by one exchange in particular. Meanwhile, a non-fungible token (NFT) trader could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks.<h2>Mantra says one exchange 'in particular' may have caused OM collapse</h2><p>The team behind real-world tokenized asset blockchain Mantra says its native token’s sudden 90% plunge was caused by exchanges forcibly closing positions without notice, with one currently unnamed exchange potentially to blame. </p><p>On April 13, Mantra (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/mantra-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">OM</a>)<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> price dropped from $6.30 to below $0.50</a>, rapidly shedding over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.</p><figure><img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Tokens, RWA Tokenization, Mantra" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019632e5-36bb-71de-b1e0-4cac9ce28a66" title=""><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108"><em>John Mullin</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>“We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mantra co-founder John Mullin<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/jp_mullin888/status/1911559071263822020" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> wrote</a> in an April 13 statement on X.</p><p>“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” he added. </p><p>Mullin<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> told</a> an X user they believe one exchange “in particular” was to blame but said they were still “figuring out the details.” He told others that the centralized exchange in question wasn’t Binance. </p><h2>Mantra token collapses by 90% but retraces some value</h2><p>The price of the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Mantra token collapsed</a> by over 90% on April 13 but regained some lost value following statements from the Mantra team and co-founder JP Mullin.</p><p>Mantra's (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/mantra-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">OM</a>) price collapsed to a low of approximately $0.38 before crossing back over $1, and is currently at that level.</p><figure><img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Government, Payments, SEC, New York, United States, Donald Trump, Policy" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/01963146-0d8d-7ce4-9bbb-01f63218b254" title=""><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Mantra token price and overview. Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra"><em>CoinGecko</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>According to the Mantra team, OM's price decline was due to "reckless liquidations" that the Mantra team is investigating.</p><p>"One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details about what happened as soon as we can," the team wrote in an April 13 X <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/MANTRA_Chain/status/1911522720623530311" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">post</a>. </p><h2>NFT trader faces prison for $13 million tax fraud on CryptoPunk profits</h2><p>A non-fungible token (NFT) trader <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptopunk-trader-six-year-sentence-13-m-gains" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptopunk-trader-six-year-sentence-13-m-gains">could face up to six years in prison</a> after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.</p><p>Waylon Wilcox, 45, admitted to filing false income tax returns for the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The former CryptoPunk investor pleaded guilty on April 9 to two counts of filing <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-file-crypto-taxes-in-the-us" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-file-crypto-taxes-in-the-us">false individual income tax returns</a>, federal prosecutors said in an April 11 press <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million">release</a>.</p><p>Back in April 2022, Wilcox filed a false individual income tax return for the tax year 2021, which underreported his income tax by roughly $8.5 million and reduced his tax due by approximately $2.1 million.</p><p>In October 2023, Wilcox filed another false individual tax income return for the fiscal year of 2022, underreporting his income tax by an estimated $4.6 million and reducing his tax due by nearly $1.1 million.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/01962f4c-215f-7a98-b872-223863ace5e0" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Wilcox pleads guilty to false tax filing, press release. Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million"><em>Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>“The total maximum penalty under federal law for these offenses is up to six years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine,” according to the statement. However, the exact details and timing of his sentence remain unclear.</p><template data-name="subscription_form" data-type="defi_newsletter" label="Subscription Form: DeFi Newsletter"></template></p>
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https://cointelegraph.com/news/what-happ...er_inbound
<p style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 15px; width:240px;"><img src="https://images.cointelegraph.com/images/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjUtMDEvMDE5NDgzZjctMTdlYS03OTc0LWJlNzMtNjYxYzdjZDE1N2M3.jpg"></p><p><p style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 15px; width:240px;"><img src="https://images.cointelegraph.com/images/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjUtMDEvMDE5NDgzZjctMTdlYS03OTc0LWJlNzMtNjYxYzdjZDE1N2M3.jpg" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"></p><p>Today in crypto, the price of the Mantra token collapsed. Its co-founder says they believe it may have been caused by one exchange in particular. Meanwhile, a non-fungible token (NFT) trader could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks.<h2>Mantra says one exchange 'in particular' may have caused OM collapse</h2><p>The team behind real-world tokenized asset blockchain Mantra says its native token’s sudden 90% plunge was caused by exchanges forcibly closing positions without notice, with one currently unnamed exchange potentially to blame. </p><p>On April 13, Mantra (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/mantra-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">OM</a>)<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> price dropped from $6.30 to below $0.50</a>, rapidly shedding over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.</p><figure><img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Tokens, RWA Tokenization, Mantra" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019632e5-36bb-71de-b1e0-4cac9ce28a66" title=""><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108"><em>John Mullin</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>“We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mantra co-founder John Mullin<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/jp_mullin888/status/1911559071263822020" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> wrote</a> in an April 13 statement on X.</p><p>“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” he added. </p><p>Mullin<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/torvaman_/status/1911580113268810108" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null"> told</a> an X user they believe one exchange “in particular” was to blame but said they were still “figuring out the details.” He told others that the centralized exchange in question wasn’t Binance. </p><h2>Mantra token collapses by 90% but retraces some value</h2><p>The price of the <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">Mantra token collapsed</a> by over 90% on April 13 but regained some lost value following statements from the Mantra team and co-founder JP Mullin.</p><p>Mantra's (<a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/mantra-price-index" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">OM</a>) price collapsed to a low of approximately $0.38 before crossing back over $1, and is currently at that level.</p><figure><img alt="Cryptocurrencies, Government, Payments, SEC, New York, United States, Donald Trump, Policy" src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/01963146-0d8d-7ce4-9bbb-01f63218b254" title=""><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Mantra token price and overview. Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra"><em>CoinGecko</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>According to the Mantra team, OM's price decline was due to "reckless liquidations" that the Mantra team is investigating.</p><p>"One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details about what happened as soon as we can," the team wrote in an April 13 X <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/MANTRA_Chain/status/1911522720623530311" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="null">post</a>. </p><h2>NFT trader faces prison for $13 million tax fraud on CryptoPunk profits</h2><p>A non-fungible token (NFT) trader <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptopunk-trader-six-year-sentence-13-m-gains" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/cryptopunk-trader-six-year-sentence-13-m-gains">could face up to six years in prison</a> after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.</p><p>Waylon Wilcox, 45, admitted to filing false income tax returns for the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The former CryptoPunk investor pleaded guilty on April 9 to two counts of filing <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-file-crypto-taxes-in-the-us" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/how-to-file-crypto-taxes-in-the-us">false individual income tax returns</a>, federal prosecutors said in an April 11 press <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million">release</a>.</p><p>Back in April 2022, Wilcox filed a false individual income tax return for the tax year 2021, which underreported his income tax by roughly $8.5 million and reduced his tax due by approximately $2.1 million.</p><p>In October 2023, Wilcox filed another false individual tax income return for the fiscal year of 2022, underreporting his income tax by an estimated $4.6 million and reducing his tax due by nearly $1.1 million.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/01962f4c-215f-7a98-b872-223863ace5e0" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Wilcox pleads guilty to false tax filing, press release. Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank" text="null" title="https://www.justice.gov/usao-mdpa/pr/york-county-man-pleads-guilty-filing-false-income-tax-returns-omitted-more-13-million"><em>Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>“The total maximum penalty under federal law for these offenses is up to six years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine,” according to the statement. However, the exact details and timing of his sentence remain unclear.</p><template data-name="subscription_form" data-type="defi_newsletter" label="Subscription Form: DeFi Newsletter"></template></p>
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