John Patrick Mullin, the co-founder and CEO of MANTRA, spoke about the sudden 90% drop in the price of the OM token.
He explained that this decline was not due to any actions by the MANTRA team but was instead caused by “reckless forced closures” on centralized exchanges (CEXs) where the token is traded. Mullin pointed out that the crash happened quickly and without warning, suggesting that the exchanges acted carelessly.
He did not mention any specific exchange but criticized their actions, saying that they have too much power and can make decisions that negatively impact both projects and investors. The crash occurred during a time of low trading activity on a Sunday evening, which Mullin described as either negligence or possibly a deliberate move by the exchanges.
The OM token had previously reached a high of $9 earlier in the year but fell dramatically from $6.3 to as low as $0.37 on April 13. As of now, the token has slightly recovered to above $1.
There were accusations that MANTRA was selling off its holdings, but Mullin denied these claims. He emphasized that the drop in price was not caused by the team or its investors, and all tokens held by the team are still locked as per their agreed-upon schedules.
Mullin reassured the community that the OM token’s basic economics remain the same. MANTRA recently became the first DeFi protocol to be licensed by Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA). To further address the situation, the company plans to hold a community discussion on the social media platform X.
Despite Mullin’s explanations, many in the crypto community still felt uneasy and believed that his statement lacked clarity. In a follow-up message, he mentioned that the team is gathering more information about the incident.
Other cryptocurrencies have also faced sharp declines on exchanges like Binance, where changes in margin requirements have increased risks for traders with insufficient collateral
