Mantra & Luna: 🤯 Same Crash, Diff Story?

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The recent contretemps involving the Mantra (OM) token, wherein it executed a rather dramatic nosedive, has, inevitably, drawn comparisons to that cause célèbre of crypto-catastrophes, the Terra ecosystem collapse of May 2022. Some, with a penchant for the histrionic, have even dubbed Mantra the “next Terra.” One shudders at the thought! Still, voices of reason (a rare commodity in these digital wilds) insist that the two share nothing beyond a superficial, almost aesthetically displeasing, resemblance in their price charts. 📉

“While it might be tempting for the mathematically challenged to see parallels between OM’s recent tumble and the Terra Luna fiasco, they are, in essence, as different as chalk and cheese,” declared one Ben Yorke, a vice president at the DeFi project Woo, in a statement so carefully worded it could only be destined for CryptoMoon. One imagines him wringing his hands with concern. 🤔

Alexis Sirkia, chairman of the DeFi infrastructure project Yellow Network, concurred, presumably from a well-appointed office overlooking something suitably impressive. “There are no real similarities apart from the visual of the price dropping,” he asserted, with the weary air of a man who has seen it all before. 🙄

Visual similarity — different numbers

Mantra’s OM token, in a display of breathtaking speed, plummeted 92% on April 13, descending from the dizzying heights of over $6 to a rather more pedestrian $0.52 in a matter of hours. According to those diligent number-crunchers at CoinGecko, OM shed a staggering $5.4 billion in market capitalization in less than four hours. One almost feels sorry for the poor thing. Almost. 💸

By contrast, TerraClassicUSD (formerly UST), in a display of comparative restraint, took a full five days to lose a similar percentage, shedding a mere $17.2 billion. One can only assume it was taking its time to savor the descent.

The LUNA crash, it must be noted, was a more gradual affair than either the OM token or USTC. It began its downward spiral some time before the UST token depegged on May 9, 2022. A slow-motion tragedy, if you will. 🎭

Still, the undeniable visual resemblance of the price charts has, alas, prompted comparisons among the great unwashed, despite significant and rather glaring structural differences between the projects. One despairs. 🤦‍♂️

Terra collapse was systemic in contrast to Mantra

Woo’s Yorke and Yellow Network’s Sirkia, those paragons of financial wisdom, agreed that Terra’s collapse was systemic and occurred due to the inherent flaws in its algorithmic stablecoin, while Mantra, as yet, has not been proven to be subject to any similarly catastrophic structural weaknesses. Lucky them! 🎉

“OM appears to be more of a case of, shall we say, mismanagement or negligence,” Yorke delicately suggested, adding that the Mantra crash involved a “large number of insider-held tokens” being unceremoniously dumped onto exchanges, sparking a series of cascading liquidations. A most unfortunate incident, to be sure. 🤭

“The issue wasn’t a structural flaw in the protocol, but rather a breakdown in token handling and trust,” he noted, with the air of a seasoned observer of human folly. One can only nod in agreement. 😌

“Mantra is not broken. There was no peg to fail. This is a market structure issue, not a protocol failure,” Sirkia stated, stressing that only an event like a smart contract failure could indicate a truly serious issue in the protocol. He then added, for good measure:

“Terra collapsed because of how it was built. Mantra went through a market-driven correction. The team remained transparent throughout. After the drop, OM bounced over 200%, showing real demand and community belief. That kind of recovery never happened with Luna.”

Yorke and Sirkia’s Mantra comments mark the second day after the OM crash, with the token slightly recovering to $0.80 by publishing time after a brutal sell-off from above $6 to $0.50 per token on April 13. A tentative recovery, perhaps, but one should never count one’s chickens before they hatch. 🐣

According to the latest bulletin from Mantra CEO John Mullin, Mantra intends to share a post-mortem report detailing the events leading up to the calamitous crash of the OM token in the next 24 hours. One awaits with bated breath. ⏳

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2025-04-15 17:16