OM Token’s 90% Crash Sparks Exchange Scrutiny: Binance and OKX Respond Amid Sell-Off Allegations

Major cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and OKX are under scrutiny following the dramatic 90% collapse of OM, the native token of the real-world asset platform Mantra. Within hours, OM’s price plunged from $6.30 to below $0.50, wiping out over $5.5 billion in market capitalization and prompting a flurry of reactions across the crypto community.

Binance addressed the incident on April 14 through its Customer Support account on X, revealing that the sharp drop resulted from a series of cross-exchange liquidations. The exchange pointed out that it had already issued a warning for OM trading back in January 2025, alerting users to significant tokenomics changes, including a surge in circulating supply. Additionally, Binance said it had previously lowered leverage levels for OM trading in October 2024 in response to mounting volatility.

Despite these precautions, traders criticized Binance for not suspending OM earlier or placing stricter controls, especially as concerns over token concentration and sudden liquidity movements had been raised by the community weeks in advance.

OKX CEO Star described the incident as “a big scandal to the whole crypto industry” and committed to releasing a full report based on public on-chain data and internal metrics. According to analytics from CryptoNinjas, Binance saw withdrawals of 127 million OM in the past month—roughly 13% of its circulating supply—while OKX registered deposits of nearly 70 million OM, suggesting a major shift in token distribution that may have exacerbated selling pressure.

The causes of the crash remain contested. Mantra CEO JP Mullin attributed the price collapse to reckless forced closures by centralized exchanges. He denied that the team had sold tokens, asserting that OM held by insiders remained under lock as per the project’s vesting schedule.

However, on-chain investigators, including crypto analyst Max Brown, countered this claim. Brown reported that a wallet linked to the Mantra team deposited 3.9 million OM on OKX just before the crash, potentially triggering a panic sell-off. Brown also alleged that the team holds nearly 90% of OM’s total supply, raising concerns about centralization and insider risk.

OM is currently trading at around $0.79, down 91% from its February all-time high of $8.99. Its market cap now stands at approximately $764 million, down from $6 billion in less than two days.

The collapse of OM has reignited calls for more rigorous tokenomics transparency, better safeguards from exchanges, and clearer communication from projects with outsized insider allocations. For now, both Binance and OKX say they are monitoring the situation closely as investigations continue.