Mantra chief executive officer John Mullin denied reports of large-scale token transfers by major Mantra investors in the days leading up to the sharp collapse of the OM token.
Mr. Mullin made the mentioned statement while talking to media representatives. According to him, the Mantra association, its main investors, and its advisors did not sell tokens. He also announced his intention to provide verifiable onchain proof.
Previous reports circulating in the public information space suggested that Laser Digital, a strategic Mantra investor, had cashed out most of the Mantra (OM) tokens before the cryptocurrency collapsed last Sunday, April 13. The blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, citing Arkham Intelligence data, said on Sunday that 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 to exchanges before the crash
Laser Digital is a digital asset business backed by Nomura. Last May, the company announced an investment in Mantra.
According to Arkham data, since April 11, one Laser Digital-linked wallet has moved about 6.5 million OM tokens worth $41.6 million to OKX in seven transactions.
The last recorded transaction from the wallet occurred on April 11, before the Mantra crash, which took place on April 13. This is evidenced by data from CoinGecko.
Another wallet sent about 2.2 million OM worth $13 million to Binance as part of a series of transfers that began on April 3.
The data cited by the media suggests that Laser Digital may have started reducing its OM holdings as early as February. It is also reported that wallets linked to the company received a large portion of their OM from the crypto trading firm GSR in 2023.
Laser Digital denied reports alleging its involvement in the OM volatility, noting that the referenced wallets did not belong to it. The relevant information is contained in a post that was published on the company’s account on the social media platform X on Monday, April 14. Separately, in this context, it was noted that the circulating assertions that link Laser Digital to investor selling are actually incorrect and misleading.
The mentioned company was not the only Mantra investor active before the OM collapse. Data from Lookonchain indicates that a wallet associated with Shane Shin, a founding partner of Shorooq Partners, received 2 million OM tokens a few hours before the crash. The tokens came from the previously dormant wallet, which received 2.75 million OM in April last year.
Both Laser Digital and Shorooq were among the investors in the $109 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund (MEF) announced on April 7.
A spokesperson for Shorooq stated in a media comment that the funds and founding partners of this company and Mantra’s management and team members did not sell OM tokens in the run-up to or during the crash. It was also noted separately that Shorooq is an equity investor in Mantra and not solely a token investor. It was underlined that this means that the company is focused on the long-term growth of the project.
Mantra has not yet responded to a media request for comment on the OM token collapse and its implications for the MEF.
Denying the accuracy of the data from Arkham, John Mullin stated that the company was not aware of the identity of the addresses dumping OM before its crash. According to him, he does not know who owns these wallets. At the same time, John Mullin stated that the mentioned wallets don’t belong to Shorooq and Laser Digital. Separately, he noted that they don’t belong to the company’s institutional partners. John Mullin stated that Mantra holds the view that the wallets were mislabeled by Arkham. It was also separately noted that the platform provided the addresses of its main wallets in the transparency report, which was published last week.
Arkham did not respond to a media request for comment regarding Laser Digital’s wallets’ tags.
OKX and Binance were among the exchanges that saw significant OM activity before and during the crash. Both of these exchanges addressed the issue directly.
OKX founder Star Xu described the incident as a big scandal for the entire cryptocurrency industry. While John Mullin attributed the OM crash to one exchange, Binance hinted at cross-exchange liquidations. In a statement from the mentioned platform published on April 14, it was noted that the initial findings indicate that the developments over the past day are the result of cross-exchange liquidations.
In an update on April 14, OKX stated that Mantra’s tokenomics had undergone major changes since October 2024 and flagged suspicious activity on several exchanges.
As we have reported earlier, Visa Reports Growth in Tokens.
