The cryptocurrency market has witnessed major collapses, such as the downfall of Web3 giants FTX and Terraluna. While the industry has become better at filtering out questionable projects, occasionally, some manage to attract public interest and accumulate billions in market capitalization through shady behavior.
Before we dive into the dirt, let’s first go back to the beginning to understand how Mantra got to where they are now. The time is November 2023, markets are unsure and projects are struggling badly. The crypto space is propped up by the spectacular grandeur of smoke and mirrors and although projects must maintain a public image of power, motivation and runway was drying up and founders are no strangers to bear market chaos behind the scenes.
Although the space seems massive, circles are very small and whispers surely echo down the decentralized halls of Web3. During the start of the holiday season in 2023, a collegue received a message from a dear friend, a prestigious founder in the space and surely trusted amongst his peers.
“Hey man, how are you? I have something interesting that you or your network might find appealing. Are you guys looking into buying out any Binance listed projects? I know of a launchpad project that still controls approximately 30% of their token supply and they are looking to exit or be the face of the project while someone buys them out. They have some tech built so you would be buying out their remaining token supply and the code that they have for the launchpad. The project ticker is $OM and the project name is Mantra, asking price to buy out the team is $10m or best offer.”
My colleague passed on the opportunity, but surely there were players in this space that always look for opportunities with distressed projects. You may ask, what’s the actual opportunity here? Why would someone buy out a dead project that clearly no one wants to buy, with a token that has $2m in daily volume and price completely decimated from the bear market?
The truth is, it’s an industry secret that having a project listed on Binance is considered to be an actual goldmine. Why? Because of two key factors: number one, it is nearly impossible for projects to get listed on Binance these days and number two, projects on Binance have the largest audience of retail buyers. With some key factors in place, this Mantra deal could be extremely lucrative.
Which key factors? Two things- an abundance of cash and high token supply control. Let’s think about it, what has been this cycle’s money maker for retail? Memes. Why do memes do well? Retail likes to think it’s because one dog meme is cuter than the other but lets face it- cabals snipe up supply early and when one entity controls such a high percentage of supply, any amount of cash will push price sky high. When prices spike, we all know that the best marketing is green candles and that’s when retail fomo buys in, and insiders exit into the retail buying. It’s disgusting, but again, it’s all there in front of us. Those that know don’t care (because they are likely profiting off of these schemes also), and those that care don’t know (because they think that they are going to be the next millionaire from $DOGCATPEPEGIGATRUMP).
I digress. Back to the story. Now have a look at the CMC chart for Mantra during December 2023. This is when the deal closed for the Mantra buyout. The buyers? It’s all in the open- Sharooq Ventures alongside Nomura Bank’s Laser Digital are the two players responsible for orchestrating “the perfect heist”.
Now, look at the chart in January 2024, trading volume spiked massively as this was the start of the accumulation by Sharooq and Laser. After buying out the project, the next move is to rebuy uncontrolled tokens (retail owned) from the market to begin the push to control supply. After a couple of months of steady purchasing from the market, this is when the real shadiness began.
Now that one of the two key factors are in place- supply being heavily controlled by insiders, the “Mantra team” aka Sharooq and Laser reached out to several insider investors and sold them the newly purchased tokens in a heavily discounted OTC (over the counter) investment deal with one large caveat- that the investors must send cash upfront for the tokens, but their tokens would be cliffed for 1 year. Why did Sharooq and Laser insist on these terms?
Simple. So that Mantra could use the investor’s cash to buy more Mantra tokens on the market and pump the $OM token price (remember memes, with high token supply control- any purchasing on market will push price heavily) and the investors don’t receive their tokens right away so it alleviates any sell pressure from them dumping their OTC discounted tokens. Now, Mantra is succeeding in killing two birds with one stone- $OM price is pumping from them buying the token on the market, and they are controlling more and more supply.
The next move? Rinse and repeat- take more investor money for OTC investments and lock their token release for at least a year. But why did investors take the deal with such a long time until their tokens are released? Well, because the team was selling the tokens as cheap as $.05 cents, when they were trading on the market for $.50 plus and sometimes (especially in this industry), greed overtakes logic.
Don’t believe me? Have a look yourself, numbers don’t lie. Have you ever wondered how red days where the entire market is down, Mantra price remains steady or rises? High token supply control and any amount of cash to buy on the market is how they achieve this. Look at the Mantra chart for 2024. One thing that Sharooq, Laser, and Mantra didn’t do well is to be convincing. It doesn’t take rocket science for anyone in the industry to sniff out when the team took in sizable investments and used the cash to pump $OM price on the market. A 100% price increase in 3 days with absolutely no catalyst at all? Come on Sharooq and Laser, you can do better than that.
Mantra, Sharooq, and Laser continued to play out their heist with multiple OTC investments with long token cliffs and successfully became Web3’s sweetheart project with a chart that is almost too good to be true. But just like the infamous Bernie Madoff who pulled off the biggest ponzi scheme in tradfi, when things seem too good to be true- it normally is.
Lets fast forward to December 2024 and have a look at the communications from the Mantra team. Remember when they decided to push back unlocks for airdrops? Well it wasn’t just the airdrop unlock that was being pushed back. Virtually all of the OTC investors (besides the few big insiders) that were supposed to have their tokens unlocked after the 1 year cliff were told that their cliff is being extended. Of course that caused a lot of backlash behind the scenes from angry investors but what can they do, FUD the project and out them for unethical business when they hold such a massive stake of $OM tokens? Again, some investors bought $OM OTC at $.05 and Mantra hit a whopping $8 plus in 2025. Of course the OTC investors will remain quiet, hoping to one day be able to receive their $OM tokens and exit their positions, making hundreds of millions of dollars by dumping on retail investors.
Mantra is this cycle’s Terraluna and it is only a matter of time before it completely implodes. This is an open call to the following: to the OTC investors, to retail investors, and especially to Binance.
For the OTC investors of $OM- speak up, your tokens are held hostage and you know that the key to any ponzi is to avoid being last to hold the bag, will you be the last one holding the bag while the Mantra team, Sharooq, and Laser Digital and other insiders sell before you receive your tokens?
For retail investors of $OM- stay far away! It’s only a matter of time before OTC investors’ tokens will start to unlock and the cascade of dumps will begin. Do not be another victim of insiders and vulture VCs.
For Binance- Richard, you are a huge advocate for protection of Binance traders, please protect them against another Web3 scam. Look into this project. Are they actually building? Show the tech. Show who is building on Mantra chain. Main net has been live, why are there no projects building on the chain?
Mantra price increase is solely based on the fact that Mantra has become a meme token- high control of token supply and money used to push price. No tech, partnerships are completely purchased and based on air (ask Damac for an update on their collaboration with Mantra), no activity on their chain, no dapps built, nothing. Mantra is simply a meme token, and that is ok, retail likes to buy green candles, but do not pose as a true tech company when insiders all know that you aren’t.
You are a house of cards, built on investor’s cash with their tokens held hostage until the big players first take their gains with retail investors being the ones that will ultimately feel the most pain. Don’t be left holding the bag.
In mid-February, the crypto token OM (MANTRA) surged by 50%, delivering significant gains to investors. The market capitalization of the asset soared from $5 billion to $7.16 billion in just 24 hours.
Notably, around 30% of all MANTRA tokens are held by the ten largest wallet addresses, with balances ranging from $150 million to $1.2 billion. This concentration theoretically makes it easier to manipulate the token’s price. For comparison, one of the most popular cryptocurrencies, ETH, is 99% distributed among wallets holding less than $1,000 worth of assets.
So, what exactly is MANTRA, who controls it, and why is it being pumped with money so aggressively?
What Is MANTRA, and Who Is Behind It?
According to the company’s official website, the MANTRA crypto service (formerly known as MANTRA DAO) is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on staking, decentralized finance (DeFi), and blockchain technology. It aims to develop and launch financial applications compatible with Web3.
The co-founders of MANTRA are John Patrick Mullin, Rodrigo Quan Miranda, and Will Corkin.
In March 2024, MANTRA announced a successful funding round of $11 million, led by Shorooq Partners. Other investors mentioned in the round included Three Point Capital, Forte Securities, Caladan, Virtuzone, Hex Trust, Token Bay Capital, GameFi Ventures, Mapleblock, Fust Capital, 280 Capital.
Lawsuit Against the Founders
Interestingly, the founders of MANTRA are currently facing a lawsuit from RioDeFi shareholders, who claim to be the original developers and creators of MANTRA DAO.
The plaintiffs allege that the defendants, initially affiliated with RioDeFi, unlawfully seized the assets and business of MANTRA DAO, effectively taking control without proper authorization.
The court-mandated disclosure of financial records is expected to provide insight into MANTRA DAO’s financial operations, which have remained largely opaque since January 2021. Notably, MANTRA’s financial statements are currently unavailable, and the link to the project’s whitepaper on its official website does not display any data.
Promises vs. Reality: What Insiders Say
Another red flag for investors has been the failure of MANTRA to meet its projected milestones.
Four years ago, John Patrick Mullin stated in an interview that MANTRA had launched several working prototypes, participated in the Parity Substrate Builders program, committed over $50 million in Total Value Locked (TVL), had $120 million in assets staked across validator nodes, and had locked nearly 50% of token supply in staking contracts.
However, four years later, none of these claims have materialized—no products, no launchpads, and no significant TVL.
According to insider sources, the founders of MANTRA previously attempted to sell a large stake in the project for $5–10 million. However, no concrete product or viable business model was presented to justify such a valuation. The source suggests that the founders may have resorted to market manipulation in an attempt to extract profits.
