Following a dramatic 90% drop in the value of Mantra’s OM token, numerous analysts began to highlight possible insider selling as a concern. The most recent actions taken by Mantra DAO have intensified these apprehensions.
Mantra (OM) has been transferring more tokens to exchange wallets, raising alarms about potential insider trading. On Monday, April 14, the organization behind the RWA-focused project moved an additional $26.96 million worth of OM tokens into a Binance wallet.
This transfer occurred after Mantra’s price plummeted by 90%, falling from a high of $6.28 to its current value of $0.7192. This drastic decline resulted in a loss of over $5 billion in market capitalization, which several analysts attribute to insider selling.
It is noteworthy that the Mantra team possesses control over 90% of the OM token supply. Therefore, the movement of funds by Mantra DAO has led to heightened suspicion regarding insider trading.
Mantra CEO asserts that the team did not sell tokens
In light of the price downturn, Mantra’s CEO JP Mullin asserted that the sell-off was not a result of any token sales by the team or investors. Rather, he attributes the fall to forced liquidations instigated by centralized exchanges.
This claim has been challenged by various independent analysts who have tracked the token movements on-chain. For example, crypto analyst Max Brown pointed out that Mantra transferred 3.9 million OM tokens to OKX just before the price plummet.
It’s crucial to understand that once tokens are moved to centralized exchanges, their activity becomes difficult to track on-chain. As such, independent analysts cannot definitively confirm whether a sale has occurred. However, centralized exchanges can conduct investigations into these transfers, and ongoing inquiries are being reported by major exchanges.
Binance has supported the CEO’s explanation, stating that initial analyses indicate the crash likely stems from cross-exchange liquidations. Meanwhile, OKX attributed the volatility to “major changes” in OM’s tokenomics, along with multiple on-chain addresses depositing tokens into centralized exchanges.
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