Coin Market

Mantra CEO plans to burn team’s tokens in bid to win community trust

Published

1 week ago

April 16, 2025

Mantra CEO John Mullin said he is planning to burn all of his team’s tokens in order to win back the trust of the network’s community following the sudden collapse of the Mantra (OM) token on April 13.

“I’m planning to burn all of my team tokens and when we turn it around the community and investors can decide if I have earned it back,” Mullin posted to X on April 16.

Mantra set aside 300 million OM, 16.88% of the token’s nearly 1.78 billion total supply, for its team and core contributors. They are currently locked and were scheduled to be released in stages between April 2027 and October 2029, according to an April 8 blog post.

The team’s tokens are worth around $236 million, with OM currently trading around 78 cents but were worth around $1.89 billion before the token sank on April 13, going from around $6.30 to a low of 52 cents and wiping over $5.5 billion in value, according to CoinGecko.

Source: JP Mullin

Many community members welcomed Mullin’s pledge, but others saw the token burn as a potential blow to the team’s long-term commitment to building the real-world asset tokenization platform.

“This would be a mistake. We want teams that are highly incentivized. Burning the incentive may seem like a good gesture but it will hurt the team motivation long term,” said Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner.

Mullin suggested a decentralized vote could determine whether to burn the 300 million team tokens.

Mantra recovery process already underway

Mullin promised a post-mortem statement explaining what went wrong to be transparent with the community.

Speaking to Cointelegraph on April 14, Mullin outlined plans to leverage the $109 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund for potential token buybacks and burns to stabilize OM’s price, which had fallen from $6.30 to as low as $0.52.

Mullin’s firm has strongly refuted rumors that it controls 90% of OM’s token supply and engaged in insider trading and market manipulation.

Mantra claims the OM price implosion was triggered by “reckless liquidations,” adding that it wasn’t related to any actions undertaken by the team.

OKX and Binance were among the crypto exchanges that saw significant OM activity right before the token collapse.

Both exchanges denied any wrongdoing, attributing the collapse to changes made to OM’s tokenomics in October and unusual volatility that ultimately triggered high-volume cross-exchange liquidations on April 13.

Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research

Coin Market

Shaquille O’Neal reaches settlement in FTX lawsuit, terms remain secret

Published

15 minutes ago

April 24, 2025

Shaquille O’Neal has settled with investors who claim losses from the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, according to an April 23 filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida.

The settlement amount remains confidential, with terms expected to be disclosed after investors formally request preliminary court approval, according to court documents.

O’Neal and other celebrities and athletes were accused of promoting FTX and allegedly contributing to investor losses by endorsing the now-bankrupt exchange.

Source: Court Listener

The case is part of a broader multidistrict litigation effort, where investors are seeking up to $21 billion in damages from FTX insiders, advisers and promoters, far exceeding the $9.2 billion available through bankruptcy proceedings.

Other celebrities embroiled in similar legal troubles for their roles in FTX include NFL quarterback Tom Brady, supermodel Gisele Bündchen, billionaire investor Kevin O’Leary, former NBA player Udonis Haslem, David Ortiz, Naomi Osaka and others.

Notably, FTX investors faced challenges in serving O’Neal with legal papers during the early stages of the lawsuit over his promotion of the collapsed exchange.

Lawyers representing the victims described O’Neal as “running from the lawsuit,” after multiple failed attempts to deliver court documents. Legal teams reportedly spent months trying to reach the NBA legend, resorting to creative methods, including attempting service during NBA games and at his residences.

O’Neal finalizes $11 million settlement over Astrals NFT project

The settlement with FTX investors comes as O’Neal recently agreed to pay $11 million to resolve a class-action lawsuit tied to his involvement in the Solana-based Astrals NFT project.

In May 2023, O’Neal was served with the Astral NFT lawsuit during an NBA game at Miami’s Kaseya Center, formerly the FTX Arena. The class-action lawsuit involved his promotion of the Astrals NFT project, alleging that the NFTs promoted by O’Neal were unregistered securities.

In August 2024, a Miami federal court judge ruled that O’Neal would need to defend some of the claims brought against him in the case.

Astrals is a Solana-based project featuring 10,000 NFTs, a metaverse called Astralworld and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) with a governance token called Galaxy.

Magazine: Ethereum maxis should become ‘assholes’ to win TradFi tokenization race

Coin Market

Bitcoin exchange outflows mimic 2023 as whales buy retail 'panic'

Published

15 minutes ago

April 24, 2025

Key points:

Bitcoin exchange 100-day average netflows are at their most negative since the start of the current bull market in 2023.

Exchange balances continue to plumb new multiyear lows.

Whales are particularly active buyers this month, while retail shows classic “panic selling.”

Bitcoin (BTC) exchanges are evoking the end of the 2022 crypto bear market as user inflows dry up this year.

Data from onchain analytics platform CryptoQuant reveals exchanges’ average net flows hitting two-year records.

Bitcoin analysis eyes “reaccumulation of assets”

Bitcoin may be trading significantly higher than at the start of 2023, but demand for BTC among exchange users is reminiscent of the start of a bull market.

CryptoQuant reveals that the 100-day simple moving average (SMA) of exchange net flows recently hit its most negative figure in two years.

“This essentially indicates the highest Bitcoin outflow from exchanges since that date,” contributor CryptoOnChain commented in one of its “Quicktake” blog posts on April 23.

“A review of historical patterns suggests that this could imply re-accumulation of assets by investors.”Bitcoin exchange netflow 100-day SMA. Source: CryptoQuant

A negative net flow tally indicates outflows from exchange surpassing inflows, reflecting more user demand than a desire to send BTC to exchange accounts for a potential sale.

As Cointelegraph reported, overall exchange BTC balances are at their lowest in many years.

CryptoQuant shows reserves hitting 2.535 million BTC in early April, down over 7% from 2.740 million BTC at the start of the year.

Bitcoin exchange reserve. Source: CryptoQuant

Whales buy while retail exits

Elsewhere, larger Bitcoin entities have added to their portion of the supply throughout April — even as smaller retail investors sell.

“Whales (1k-10k balance) have been accumulating hard since March, even as price slid,” crypto analyst Miles Deutscher noted on X this week alongside CryptoQuant data.

“Every time prices drop, whales accumulate into retail panic selling.”Bitcoin 1K BTC+ balance data. Source: Miles Deutscher/X

Research firm Santiment drew similar conclusions about entities holding at least 10 BTC, which it referred to as “key stakeholders.”

“Bitcoin’s key stakeholders comprised of wallets holding between 10 & 10K BTC currently hold 67.77% of the entire supply of crypto’s top market cap asset,” an X post reported.

“During the April volatility, these wallets continue to accumulate, and have now added over 53.6K BTC since March 22nd.”Bitcoin 10 BTC+ balance data. Source: Santiment/X

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

Coin Market

Upbit and Bithumb suspend Synthetix token deposits, citing sUSD risks

Published

15 minutes ago

April 24, 2025

South Korean exchanges Upbit and Bithumb have suspended deposits for Synthetix (SNX) tokens after it was flagged by the Digital Asset Exchange Alliance (DAXA) for potential risks.

DAXA, the self-regulatory organization establishing industry standards for South Korean exchanges, designated SNX as a cautionary item.

Assets receiving this designation typically undergo rigorous evaluations to determine whether trading can continue or if delisting is necessary.

Exchanges may take action, such as adding a warning tag to the asset and urging investors to take caution when engaging with it. Trading platforms can also perform additional measures, like blocking deposits or suspending trading support temporarily.

Upbit and Bithumb block SNX deposits

In response to the designation, the biggest exchanges in South Korea said they are blocking deposits for SNX tokens on their platforms.

Upbit announced that it had added a trading caution ticker and suspended token deposits. The exchange said it had been monitoring the developments related to the Synthetix USD (sUSD) depegging. It added that this event may damage investors through potential volatility, as SNX is used as collateral for sUSD.

The exchange added that it had determined a lack of use cases for the asset, which may cause investors to suffer losses. Upbit said it would conduct a comprehensive review to decide whether to delist the asset or resume normal operations for the token.

Bithumb has also blocked deposits for SNX and added a cautionary tag for the token. However, the exchange said this decision could be overturned depending on internal circumstances. If the reason for the designation is resolved, Bithumb said it would lift the restrictions.

Korbit and Coinone also published investor alerts to caution traders. The two exchanges added cautionary tags to SNX tokens to alert investors who may want to trade the token.

Cointelegraph reached out to Synthetix for comment but did not get a response by publication.

sUSD struggles to recover dollar peg

On April 10, the sUSD stablecoin dropped to a five-year low of $0.83 after struggling to maintain its dollar peg in the first quarter of 2025. With the stablecoin being collateralized by the project’s native asset, Cork Protocol co-founder Rob Schmitt compared the token to Terra USD (UST), which collapsed in 2022. However, Schmitt said that sUSD has a “more manageable” debt system.

On April 18, the stablecoin dipped further to $0.68, with SNX falling by 26% in a 30-day period. A Synthetix spokesperson told Cointelegraph that their team has short, medium and long-term plans to mitigate the risks.

On April 21, Synthetix founder Kain Warwick threatened SNX stakers with “the stick” if they didn’t take up a newly launched staking mechanism to fix the sUSD depeg. The executive said they may put extra pressure on stakers if they don’t see enough momentum on the newly implemented mechanism.

Since the warning, sUSD prices increased by 27%. On April 24, the stablecoin briefly reached $0.87. However, the token has still failed to recover its dollar peg.

Magazine: Uni students crypto ‘grooming’ scandal, 67K scammed by fake women: Asia Express