Mantra OM crashes 90% with strange selloffs as the team claims “forced liquidation”

Crypto Traders reminded Terra’s Luna early on Monday as emerging Mantra’s OM tokens fell 90% with a sudden catalyst.

OM plunged at the time of normal liquidity hours in the crypto market from the second half of Sunday to early Monday, starting at $6 to over 40 cents.

“I want to ensure that the mantra is fundamentally strong,” the team said in an X post following the price drop. “Today’s activities were caused by reckless liquidation, independent of the project. One thing we want to clarify is that this wasn’t our team. We’re looking into it and we’ll share details about what happened as soon as possible.”

Mantra allows users to tokenize real-world assets (RWAs) into real-world assets, such as real estate and products, allowing digital investments in tangible assets. That OM token promotes transaction and governance.

In January 2025, Mantra partnered with UAE-based conglomerate Damac Group to tokenize $1 billion in assets, including real estate, hospitality and data centers.

OM was one of the biggest market winners in 2024, rising over 400% in relatively low public conversations on crypto-related social media.

Meanwhile, co-founder John Patrick Mullin argued that the movement likely occurred because the movement closed its position in OM and affected its exposure to all markets.

“We have determined that the movement in the OM market was caused by a reckless forced closure initiated by a central exchange of OM account holders,” Mullin said in the X Post. “The timing and depth of the crash suggests that a very sudden closure of account positions has been launched without adequate warning or notification.”

He further argued for “deliberate market positioning done through centralized exchange.”

OM-tracked futures recorded more than $50 million liquidation on the long side, the record number of tokens. Open interest has grown from $345 million to just over $130 million, indicating a quick exit for unresolved futures bets.

However, some well-known code voices have not purchased that story with the boring response scores under Marine’s post.

OKX founder Star Xu has been added to the answer to another post that flagged more than $220 million in token deposits to exchange before prices plummeted.

“This is a major scandal for the entire crypto industry. All on-chain unlock and deposit data are all public. We can look into the collateral and liquidation data for all major exchanges. OKX prepares all reports,” says Xu.