OKX, Mantra dispute over price manipulation accusation

The public dispute between cryptocurrency exchange OKX and layer-1 blockchain project MANTRA is over a token migration. OKX is accusing coordinated groups of manipulating the OM token’s price, and MANTRA’s chief executive officer (CEO) is demanding transparency about tokens held by the exchange.

The conflict centers on preparations to migrate OM tokens to MANTRA’s new blockchain. But it has reopened wounds from April, when the OM token crashed more than 90% in hours, wiping out over $5 billion in market capitalization.

Why did MANTRA’s CEO call out OKX?

John Patrick “JP” Mullin, MANTRA’s founder and CEO, posted an open letter on X, addressing OKX’s concerns about the migration timeline. The letter confirmed that the ERC-20 OM token would be deprecated on January 15, 2026, followed shortly by a chain upgrade and 1:4 token split handled at the protocol level, requiring no user interaction.

But Mullin made a pointed request, asking OKX to disclose how many OM tokens belong to users versus how many sit on OKX’s own balance sheet.

“As part of our commitment to regulatory compliance, it is our longstanding policy to verify the background of any significant movements of OM tokens,” Mullin wrote, later adding, “For this reason, we reiterate our request for OKX to the number of OKX users’ $OM tokens to be migrated and (ii) the number of $OM tokens held by OKX on OKX’s balance sheet.”

On December 8, he characterized OKX’s post on the OM migration as misinformation, containing “factual errors” adding that “OKX’s unilateral creation of specific dates without consultation with MANTRA has caused unnecessary market confusion.”

The following day, the CEO, who has been calling for all OM holders to migrate their tokens to MANTRA, against their own set deadline, mentioned that OKX just responded to them recently for the first time since the April crash.

Exchange hits back with manipulation claims

OKX responded, stating that it was clarifying “the facts, since MANTRA team continues to push a misleading narrative.” It added that it had “identified evidence that multiple connected and colluding accounts used large quantities of OM as collateral to borrow significant amounts of USDT, artificially pushing OM’s price up.”

The exchange said its risk team flagged the abnormal activity and requested corrective action, but the account holders refused to cooperate.

“To contain the risk, control of these related accounts was taken,” OKX said in its statement.

“Shortly afterwards, the OM price crashed. OKX liquidated only a very small portion of OM, yet the sharp price collapse resulted in substantial losses that were fully absorbed by the OKX Security Fund.”

The exchange said it has submitted full evidence and documentation to regulators and law enforcement agencies, and that multiple litigations are underway. OKX questioned where the unusually large quantities of OM originated and why certain groups controlled such a substantial portion of the token supply.

Observers continue to speculate on April’s event

Taran Sabharwal, CEO of crypto trading firm STIX, offered his analysis of the mechanics behind April’s crash.

He speculated that accounts borrowed USDT against OM collateral through spot margin trading. Supposedly, the accounts went on to use those funds to purchase more OM, which inadvertently drove the price higher. When the price fell below liquidation levels, automatic selling by OKX triggered a cascading effect across multiple exchanges.

The STIX CEO also wrote, “My guess, as a complete outsider, is that JP may be suing OKX to unfreeze the accounts and return the remaining tokens back to him.”

Mullin responded to the speculation post, clarifying his company’s current position with OKX. He stated, “I want to make it VERY clear. Neither MANTRA or myself have ANY ongoing litigation or legal actions ongoing with OKX. This is between them and other larger traders/investors of OM.”

He mentioned that the situation had not been in the public domain until OKX totally misunderstood the migration timeline to MANTRA’s mainnet and put out incorrect information that he had to correct.

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