The native cryptocurrency of a real-world asset-focused project dramatically crashed by nearly 90% on Sunday

The OM token of Layer-1 blockchain MANTRA nosedived from $5.26 to $0.42 in 90 minutes in the afternoon, wiping out billions of dollars

The native cryptocurrency of a real-world asset-focused project dramatically crashed by nearly 90% on Sunday, wiping out billions of dollars worth of investors' fortunes.

What Happened: The OM token of Layer-1 blockchain MANTRA (CRYPTO:) underwent a steep decline of 87% in 90 minutes on Sunday afternoon. The token tumbled from $5.26 to $0.42, marking an impressive recovery from the March 2023 lows.

However, the rapid price drop also led to significant liquidations, with over $68 million in OM liquidated in the last 24 hours, according to crypto derivatives tracking platform Coinglass.

According to blockchain analytics platform Lookonchain, about 17 wallets transferred $227 worth of OM tokens to spot exchanges, which is 4.5% of the circulating supply. Two of these addresses belong to Laser Digital, a “strategic” investor in MANTRA.

According to reports, the OM token price crash was due to reckless liquidations, which had nothing to do with the project.

"One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details about what happened as soon as we can."

Moreover, MANTRA's CEO, John Patrick Mullin, revealed that a massive forced liquidation from a large OM investor took place.

"Guys, I've just woken up, and I'm getting the complete breakdown of what's going on. There was a massive forced liquidation from a large OM investor on a CEX. Still working on the details, but we are here, and we're fixing this. Thanks for the understanding."

What Is MANTRA: MANTRA is a Layer-1 blockchain designed for the tokenization of real-world assets. The OM coin is used for securing the network via Proof-of-Stake and has an ERC-20 version on the Ethereum (CRYPTO:) network.

The coin had reached an all-time high of $9.04 in February and was up nearly 60% year-to-date before the Sunday crash.

OM Price Action: The OM token was trading at $0.7559 at press time, showing a 24-hour decline of 87.96%, according to Benzinga Pro.