Key Takeaways
- Records also show earlier activity from February, indicating that some wallets had begun offloading OM months ahead of the collapse.
- A wallet associated with founding partner Shane Shin received 2 million OM tokens just hours before the crash
The OM token issued by blockchain project MANTRA saw a steep drop in value on April 13, falling from over $6 to $0.37 within a single day. Blockchain data suggests that large volumes of OM tokens were moved to exchanges in the days leading up to the collapse by wallets linked to key investors, prompting questions about trading behavior ahead of the crash. OM is now trading around $1.03 as of 7:40 p.m. EDT.
Analysts from Lookonchain, referencing Arkham Intelligence data, identified at least 17 wallets that transferred over 43 million OM tokens—worth about $227 million at the time—to centralized exchanges shortly before the price dropped. Among these were two wallets labeled as connected to Laser Digital, a digital asset investment firm backed by financial group Nomura.
One of the wallets sent roughly 6.5 million OM tokens to OKX between April 11 and April 13, while another moved about 2.2 million OM to Binance in the days prior. The last known transfer occurred just two days before the crash. Records also show earlier activity from February, indicating that some wallets had begun offloading OM months ahead of the collapse. The tokens were reportedly received from trading firm GSR in 2023.
Laser Digital has denied any role in the incident. “Laser has no involvement in the recent price collapse of $OM,” the firm posted on April 14, stating that the wallet addresses cited online are not affiliated with it. “Assertions circulating on social media that link Laser to ‘investor selling’ are factually incorrect and misleading,” the post added.
As per reports, Shorooq Partners, another investor in MANTRA and a wallet associated with founding partner Shane Shin received 2 million OM tokens just hours before the crash, according to Lookonchain. These tokens were sent from a previously inactive wallet that had held over 2.7 million OM since April. Shorooq said it had not sold any OM and clarified that its investment in MANTRA is equity-based. “This means that our focus is on the long-term growth of the project,” a spokesperson told Cointelegraph.
Both Laser Digital and Shorooq had recently been announced as participants in MANTRA’s $109 million ecosystem fund revealed on April 7.
In response to the sudden drop, MANTRA attributed the price movement to liquidations triggered by centralized exchanges during a period of low liquidity. “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 Patrick Mullin said in a statement. The team denied any coordinated sales or manipulation from within the project.
Exchange executives also addressed the situation. OKX founder Star Xu called the event “a big scandal to the whole crypto industry.” Binance, meanwhile, issued a statement noting the issue stemmed from “cross-exchange liquidations.”
MANTRA emphasized the need for tighter oversight of centralized exchange operations, warning that uncoordinated forced actions can create systemic risks for both projects and token holders. The team rejected accusations of internal mismanagement or fraudulent behavior, maintaining that the crash was market-driven.
