04-14-2025, 06:41 PM
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, Mantra CEO John Mullin denied reports of insider sales by investors, including Laser Digital, ahead of the OM token’s 90% crash — despite onchain data suggesting otherwise. Mullin also pointed to one exchange in particular, which the Mantra team believes may have played a role in the token’s collapse.<h2>Mantra CEO denies insider OM token dump, says Arkham “mislabeled” wallets</h2><p>Mantra CEO John Mullin <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-investors-dumped-om-before-90-percent-crash" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-investors-dumped-om-before-90-percent-crash">denied reports suggesting large-scale token transfers</a> by major Mantra investors in the days leading up to the sharp collapse of the OM token, while speaking in an AMA hosted by Cointelegraph on April 14.</p><p>“The Mantra association, our key investors, our advisers — no one has sold, and we are going to categorically deny and also provide verifiable proof onchain proof that this is the case,” Mullin <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YqxooZloVMxv%20" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title=" https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YqxooZloVMxv ">stated</a> in the AMA.</p><p>Previous reports suggested that Laser Digital, a strategic Mantra investor, cashed out large portions of Mantra (OM) tokens before 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="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90">cryptocurrency collapsed on April 13</a>.</p><p>At least two wallets linked to Laser Digital were among 17 wallets that moved a combined 43.6 million OM tokens — worth about $227 million at the time — to exchanges before the crash, the blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported on April 13, citing Arkham Intelligence data.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019634a2-f262-7b1c-b4b5-fa62591c8659" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1911584133652074662" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1911584133652074662"><em>Lookonchain</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>Laser Digital is a digital asset business backed by Nomura. The firm <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://chainwire.org/2024/05/23/mantra-secures-strategic-investment-from-nomuras-laser-digital-to-accelerate-rwa-tokenization-initiatives-in-the-middle-east-and-asia/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://chainwire.org/2024/05/23/mantra-secures-strategic-investment-from-nomuras-laser-digital-to-accelerate-rwa-tokenization-initiatives-in-the-middle-east-and-asia/">announced</a> a strategic investment in Mantra in May 2024.</p><p>According to Arkham data, one Laser Digital-linked wallet had <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0xB37DBDec19737d52cDC8fD969B92bAA9e044f26A" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0xB37DBDec19737d52cDC8fD969B92bAA9e044f26A">moved</a> about 6.5 million OM tokens ($41.6 million at the time) to OKX in seven transactions since April 11.</p><p>The last recorded transaction from the wallet occurred on April 11 at around 10:00 pm UTC, days before the Mantra crash, which took place on April 13 at roughly 7:00 pm UTC, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra">according</a> to data from CoinGecko.</p><p>Another wallet <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0x024D95363A59a8b0D83e90C68613890983565124" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0x024D95363A59a8b0D83e90C68613890983565124">sent</a> about 2.2 million OM (worth $13 million) to Binance in a series of transfers starting April 3.</p><p>The data also indicated that Laser Digital may have started reducing its OM holdings as early as February. The wallets linked to the firm <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://fxtwitter.com/AmirOrmu/status/1911505581837541544" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://fxtwitter.com/AmirOrmu/status/1911505581837541544">reportedly</a> received a large portion of their OM from crypto trading firm GSR in 2023.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019634a2-f4eb-76ff-9da9-56c3c495f902" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Mantra (OM) outflows from one of the wallets linked to Laser Digital. Source: Arkham</em></p></figcaption></figure><p>Laser Digital subsequently <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/LaserDigital_/status/1911723834459177266" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/LaserDigital_/status/1911723834459177266">denied</a> reports alleging its involvement in the OM volatility, claiming that the referenced wallets did not belong to it.</p><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><template data-name="subscription_form" data-type="defi_newsletter" label="Subscription Form: DeFi Newsletter"></template></p>
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<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, Mantra CEO John Mullin denied reports of insider sales by investors, including Laser Digital, ahead of the OM token’s 90% crash — despite onchain data suggesting otherwise. Mullin also pointed to one exchange in particular, which the Mantra team believes may have played a role in the token’s collapse.<h2>Mantra CEO denies insider OM token dump, says Arkham “mislabeled” wallets</h2><p>Mantra CEO John Mullin <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-investors-dumped-om-before-90-percent-crash" rel="" target="_self" text="null" title="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-investors-dumped-om-before-90-percent-crash">denied reports suggesting large-scale token transfers</a> by major Mantra investors in the days leading up to the sharp collapse of the OM token, while speaking in an AMA hosted by Cointelegraph on April 14.</p><p>“The Mantra association, our key investors, our advisers — no one has sold, and we are going to categorically deny and also provide verifiable proof onchain proof that this is the case,” Mullin <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YqxooZloVMxv%20" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title=" https://x.com/i/broadcasts/1YqxooZloVMxv ">stated</a> in the AMA.</p><p>Previous reports suggested that Laser Digital, a strategic Mantra investor, cashed out large portions of Mantra (OM) tokens before 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="https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-price-collapses-by-over-90">cryptocurrency collapsed on April 13</a>.</p><p>At least two wallets linked to Laser Digital were among 17 wallets that moved a combined 43.6 million OM tokens — worth about $227 million at the time — to exchanges before the crash, the blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain reported on April 13, citing Arkham Intelligence data.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019634a2-f262-7b1c-b4b5-fa62591c8659" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Source: </em><a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1911584133652074662" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/lookonchain/status/1911584133652074662"><em>Lookonchain</em></a></p></figcaption></figure><p>Laser Digital is a digital asset business backed by Nomura. The firm <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://chainwire.org/2024/05/23/mantra-secures-strategic-investment-from-nomuras-laser-digital-to-accelerate-rwa-tokenization-initiatives-in-the-middle-east-and-asia/" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://chainwire.org/2024/05/23/mantra-secures-strategic-investment-from-nomuras-laser-digital-to-accelerate-rwa-tokenization-initiatives-in-the-middle-east-and-asia/">announced</a> a strategic investment in Mantra in May 2024.</p><p>According to Arkham data, one Laser Digital-linked wallet had <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0xB37DBDec19737d52cDC8fD969B92bAA9e044f26A" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0xB37DBDec19737d52cDC8fD969B92bAA9e044f26A">moved</a> about 6.5 million OM tokens ($41.6 million at the time) to OKX in seven transactions since April 11.</p><p>The last recorded transaction from the wallet occurred on April 11 at around 10:00 pm UTC, days before the Mantra crash, which took place on April 13 at roughly 7:00 pm UTC, <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/mantra">according</a> to data from CoinGecko.</p><p>Another wallet <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0x024D95363A59a8b0D83e90C68613890983565124" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://intel.arkm.com/explorer/address/0x024D95363A59a8b0D83e90C68613890983565124">sent</a> about 2.2 million OM (worth $13 million) to Binance in a series of transfers starting April 3.</p><p>The data also indicated that Laser Digital may have started reducing its OM holdings as early as February. The wallets linked to the firm <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://fxtwitter.com/AmirOrmu/status/1911505581837541544" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://fxtwitter.com/AmirOrmu/status/1911505581837541544">reportedly</a> received a large portion of their OM from crypto trading firm GSR in 2023.</p><figure><img src="https://s3.cointelegraph.com/uploads/2025-04/019634a2-f4eb-76ff-9da9-56c3c495f902" title="" alt="Here’s what happened in crypto today"><figcaption style="text-align: center;"><p><em>Mantra (OM) outflows from one of the wallets linked to Laser Digital. Source: Arkham</em></p></figcaption></figure><p>Laser Digital subsequently <a data-ct-non-breakable="null" href="https://x.com/LaserDigital_/status/1911723834459177266" rel="null" target="null" text="null" title="https://x.com/LaserDigital_/status/1911723834459177266">denied</a> reports alleging its involvement in the OM volatility, claiming that the referenced wallets did not belong to it.</p><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><template data-name="subscription_form" data-type="defi_newsletter" label="Subscription Form: DeFi Newsletter"></template></p>
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