“Critical” crypto liquidity concentration issues were revealed by Mantra’s OM token meltdown, which could have contributed to the coin’s collapse on Sunday, April 13, according to Bitget CEO Gracey Chen.
Mantra’s OM token crashed by more than 90% in a matter of hours on Sunday, April 13, causing rash analogies to past black swan events like the Terra-Luna collapse, which further damaged the mood of cryptocurrency investors this week.
Coinbase’s study for institutional investors raised additional concerns by pointing out that until a rebound happens in the third quarter of 2025, cryptocurrencies might be in a bear market.
The crash of the Mantra OM token reveals “critical” liquidity problems in cryptocurrency
Mantra’s recent token fall brings to light a problem in the cryptocurrency industry: varying weekend liquidity levels can lead to additional downward volatility, which could have made the token’s collapse worse.
Among disenchanted investors, the price of the Mantra OM token fell by more than 90% on Sunday, April 13, from about $6.30 to less than $0.50, leading to accusations of market manipulation.
Gracy Chen, the CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange Bitget, stated that although blockchain experts are still figuring out the causes of the OM collapse, the incident brings to light significant issues for the crypto sector.
Chen stated at Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction daily X show that the OM token drop revealed a number of important problems that we are witnessing not only in OM but also in the industry as a whole. He added:
An excessively concentrated token, wealth concentration, highly opaque governance, abrupt exchange inflows and outflows, and forced liquidation during periods of extremely low liquidity in our sector all contributed to the significant decline.
Crypto is in a bear market with a projected rebound in Q3
Although the crypto market has shrunk, it seems to be preparing for a stronger quarter, according to a monthly market analysis by publicly traded US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
By mid-April, the altcoin market cap had dropped 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion, according to Coinbase’s April 15 monthly outlook for institutional investors. According to data from BTC Tools, this measure was at $976.9 billion at the time of writing, having dropped to a low of $906.9 billion on April 9.
From 2021 to 2022, venture capital financing for cryptocurrency startups reportedly fell by 50% to 60%. According to Coinbase’s global head of research, David Duong, a new crypto winter might be on the horizon.
The initiation of global tariffs and the possibility of additional escalations have caused some extreme negative mood, which he suggested might be the beginning of a new “crypto winter” based on a number of converging indications.
Lazarus attempted to hack Zoom using extremely real “legit faces,” according to the founder of Manta
In an effort to trick him into downloading malware, a sophisticated phishing attack on Zoom used live recordings of people he knew, according to Kenny Li, co-founder of Manta Network.
According to Li’s April 17 X post, “The lack of sound and a suspicious prompt to download a script raised red flags.” The meeting appeared genuine with the impersonator’s camera on.
Their real faces were visible to him. Everything appeared to be very real. But he was unable to hear them. It stated that his Zoom needed to be updated. However, he was prompted to download a script file. He took off right away.
Li then requested that the impostor confirm their identity via a Telegram call, but they refused, and shortly after, they blocked him and deleted all of his messages. Lazarus Group, supported by the North Korean state, was responsible for the attack, according to Li.
Li first proposed switching the call to Google Meet, but the Manta Network co-founder was able to capture a screenshot of his exchange with the attacker before the messages were removed.
Li told that he thought the live photos utilized in the video call were from actual team members’ previous recordings. It didn’t appear to be AI-produced. The quality appeared to be comparable to that of a standard webcam.
In Q1 2025, memecoins and AI tokens will dominate cryptocurrency narratives: CoinGecko
Few new trends have emerged to replace the dominant themes in the first quarter of 2025, and the bitcoin industry is still rehashing old tales.
According to a CoinGecko quarterly research study, memecoins and artificial intelligence tokens accounted for 62.8% of investor interest in the first quarter of 2025, making them the most popular crypto narratives. AI tokens attracted 35.7% of global investor interest, surpassing memecoins, which had the second-largest share at 27.1%.
Five of the top 20 cryptocurrency stories of the quarter dealt with AI, while six of them were with memecoins.
Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko, stated in an April 17 X post that it appears that we have not yet seen a new narrative emerge and that we are still adhering to the trends from previous quarters. We must all be weary of seeing the same old patterns come up again.
Crypto lending is down 43% from its peak in 2021, but DeFi borrowing is up 959%.
The market for crypto loans is still much less than it was at its peak of $64 billion, but borrowing for decentralized finance (DeFi) has recovered more than 900% from bear market lows.
Lenders can use their cryptocurrency holdings to earn interest, while borrowers can use them as collateral to get fiat or cryptocurrency loans.
According to a study report released on April 14 by Galaxy Digital, the cryptocurrency lending market has dropped more than 43 percent from its peak of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion by the end of the fourth quarter of 2024.
Zack Pokorny, a research associate at Galaxy Digital, said the drop is due to the devastation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate organizations on the demand side respectively.
When centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi, and Voyager declared bankruptcy within two years of the decline in cryptocurrency valuations in 2022, the market for crypto loans began to shrink.
According to the analysis, their combined demise caused the lending market’s size to drop by an estimated 78%, with CeFi lending losing 82% of its open borrows.
Overview of the DeFi market
Based on statistics from TradingView and Cointelegraph Markets Pro, the majority of the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization had positive week-ending results.
The week’s largest gainer was the decentralized exchange Raydium’s (DEX) token, which increased by more than 26%. The AB blockchain utility token, which increased by more than 19% on the weekly chart, came next.
