Key Insights:
Mantra (OM), one of the leading RWA chains, has witnessed several allegations regarding its project.
Users allege token concentration, high fees, non-transparent airdrop distribution, and several other allegations.
Upon investigation, it was found that the OM token was indeed centralized in terms of wallets holding it.
Overall, the allegations seem crippling, with OM having lost 15% of its price this month and 27% since the last ATH.
Mantra (OM), one of the leading L1 chains for RWA had seen phenomenal growth in the last couple of quarters (Oct 24 - Mar 25) when its price skyrocketed from $1 to $8.4 (7400%). However, in the last month, the price has seen a considerable loss of 15%.
At present, Mantra is the 22nd largest crypto by market cap.
Mantra (OM) Down by 15% in 1 Month
CoinMarketCap
The token saw a wild rally of 7400% in less than a year, mostly due to its unique positioning in the crypto markets as a leading RWA project. Back then, Ripple or Algorand had not entered into the RWA markets. As a leading RWA project, Mantra saw great interest from retail buyers who favored it because RWA was the second fastest growing sector in the crypto markets after memecoins.
Mantra's All Time Gains
CoinMarketCap
At present, Mantra (OM) has seen a 27% decline since its ATH of $8.4 and is expected to decline because of its skewed tokenomics, which many crypto users allege has been designed to manipulate token price.
Mantra has lately been facing very strong Pump and Dump allegations after asking its users to bridge tokens to the mainnet in return for Galxe rewards.
Upon bridging from Ethereum to Mantra mainnet, which costs roughly $40, several users found that they were ineligible to receive the airdrop. The airdrop date too was changed to 18 March, from an initial date of 14 March.
Users also allege that Mantra has very skewed tokenomics and only a handful of wallets hold approximately one-third (30%) of the entire token supply. If this is true, Mantra could be one of the largest organized pump and dump scheme with a current market cap of $6.5 billion.
Taking a look at its token explorer, we also saw 52% of the token supply was being controlled by around 10 wallets shown below.
Few more allegations include:
No real innovation and just rebranding itself as an RWA chain.
Constant and drastic changes in Mantra's Whitepaper.
Very small community. Only 489 members on its Reddit, 15k subscribers and few hundred views per video on YouTube, and 11k subscribers on Instagram.
High fees on Mantra Chain.
Upon investigating independently, the majority of Mantra's nodes were deployed on the Google Cloud, making it prone to centralization risks.
If you are trading in crypto markets, its always better to hedge your risks by diversifying your portfolio. This is true in all cases, irrespective of the fact that your projects enjoy high trust or not. Even the most trusted projects could see a sudden collapse like FTX.
XRP has lately emerged as the leading project in RWA after a joint launch of the Abrdn Liquid Fund on its blockchain. The launch of RLUSD was another step taken by Ripple in strengthening XRP's presence since a stablecoin is generally preferred for settling RWA transactions.
XRP also benefits from the end of the SEC vs Ripple case with both sides dropping their appeal and cross-appeal respectively.
Algorand has reclassified itself as an RWA blockchain. It features a dual layer architecture which allows scaling without the need for an additional Layer-2 solution. Additionally, Algorand is quantum-proof which helps it evade attacks from quantum computers on its network.
XDC is an EVM-compatible blockchain which allows it to bridge assets as well as dApps from Ethereum's ecosystem. This helps it leverage Ethereum's existing ecosystem to push itself ahead and benefit from the latter's vast liquidity reserves.
The blockchain has been purposefully designed to bridge traditional finance applications to Web3, essentially capturing the core principle of RWA.
Disclaimer: Voice of Crypto aims to deliver accurate and up-to-date information, but it will not be responsible for any missing facts or inaccurate information. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile financial assets, so research and make your own financial decisions.