Crypto investor sentiment took one other important hit this week after Mantra’s OM token collapsed by over 90% inside hours on Sunday, April 13, triggering knee-jerk comparisons to earlier black swan occasions such because the Terra-Luna collapse.
Elsewhere, Coinbase’s report for institutional traders added to considerations by highlighting that cryptocurrencies could also be in a bear market till a restoration happens within the third quarter of 2025.
Mantra OM token crash exposes “essential” liquidity points in crypto
Mantra’s current token collapse highlights a difficulty throughout the crypto business of fluctuating weekend liquidity ranges creating extra draw back volatility, which can have exacerbated the token’s crash.
The Mantra (OM) token’s worth collapsed by over 90% on Sunday, April 13, from roughly $6.30 to under $0.50, triggering market manipulation allegations amongst disillusioned traders, Cointelegraph reported.
Whereas blockchain analysts are nonetheless piecing collectively the explanations behind the OM collapse, the occasion highlights some essential points for the crypto business, in accordance with Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency change Bitget.
“The OM token crash uncovered a number of essential points that we’re seeing not simply in OM, but in addition as an business,” Chen stated throughout Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction day by day X show, including:
“When it’s a token that’s too concentrated, the wealth focus and the very opaque governance, along with sudden change inflows and outflows, […] mixed with the compelled liquidation throughout very low liquidity hours in our business, created the large drop off.”
Crypto in a bear market, rebound doubtless in Q3 — Coinbase
A month-to-month market overview by publicly traded US-based crypto change Coinbase exhibits that whereas the crypto market has contracted, it seems to be gearing up for a greater quarter.
In line with Coinbase’s April 15 month-to-month outlook for institutional traders, the altcoin market cap shrank by 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion by mid-April. BTC Instruments knowledge exhibits that this metric touched a low of $906.9 billion on April 9 and stood at $976.9 billion on the time of writing.
Enterprise capital funding to crypto tasks has reportedly decreased by 50%–60% from 2021–22. Within the report, Coinbase’s world head of analysis, David Duong, highlighted {that a} new crypto winter could also be upon us.
“A number of converging alerts could also be pointing to the beginning of a brand new ‘crypto winter’ as some excessive unfavorable sentiment has set in as a result of onset of world tariffs and the potential for additional escalations,” he stated.
Manta founder particulars tried Zoom hack by Lazarus that used very actual “legit faces”
Manta Community co-founder Kenny Li stated he was focused by a classy phishing assault on Zoom that used reside recordings of acquainted folks in an try to lure him to obtain malware.
The assembly appeared actual with the impersonated individual’s digicam on, however the lack of sound and a suspicious immediate to obtain a script raised crimson flags, Li said in an April 17 X put up.
“I may see their legit faces. Every part regarded very actual. However I couldn’t hear them. It stated my Zoom wants an replace. But it surely requested me to obtain a script file. I instantly left.”
Li then requested the impersonator to confirm themselves over a Telegram name, nevertheless, they didn’t comply and proceeded to erase all messages and block him quickly after.
Li stated the North Korean state-backed Lazarus Group was behind the assault.
The Manta Network co-founder managed to screenshot his dialog with the attacker earlier than the messages have been deleted, throughout which Li initially urged shifting the decision over to Google Meet.
Talking with Cointelegraph, Li stated he believed the reside pictures used within the video name have been taken from previous recordings of actual group members.
“It didn’t appear AI-generated. The standard regarded like what a typical webcam high quality seems to be like.”
AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko
The cryptocurrency market is nonetheless recycling outdated narratives, with few new developments but to emerge and change the main themes within the first quarter of 2025.
Artificial intelligence tokens and memecoins have been the dominant crypto narratives within the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor curiosity, in accordance with a quarterly analysis report by CoinGecko. AI tokens captured 35.7% of world investor curiosity, overtaking the 27.1% share of memecoins, which remained in second place.
Out of the highest 20 crypto narratives of the quarter, six have been memecoin classes whereas 5 have been AI-related.
“Looks like now we have but to see one other new narrative emerge and we’re nonetheless following previous quarters’ developments,” stated Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief working officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post. “I assume we’re all drained from the identical outdated developments repeating themselves.”
Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%
The crypto lending market’s dimension stays considerably down from its $64 billion excessive, however decentralized finance (DeFi) borrowing has made a greater than 900% restoration from bear market lows.
Crypto lending enables debtors to make use of their crypto holdings as collateral to acquire crypto or fiat loans, whereas lenders can use their holdings to generate curiosity.
The crypto lending market was down over 43%, from its all-time excessive of $64.4 billion in 2021 to $36.5 billion on the finish of the fourth quarter of 2024, in accordance with a Galaxy Digital analysis report printed on April 14.
“The decline could be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the provision facet and funds, people, and company entities on the demand facet,” in accordance with Zack Pokorny, analysis affiliate at Galaxy Digital.
The decline within the crypto lending market began in 2022 when centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Community, BlockFi and Voyager filed for chapter inside two years as crypto valuations fell.
Their collective downfall led to an estimated 78% collapse within the dimension of the lending market, with CeFi lending dropping 82% of its open borrows, in accordance with the report.
DeFi market overview
In line with knowledge from Cointelegraph Markets Pro and TradingView, many of the 100 largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization ended the week within the inexperienced.
Decentralized exchange (DEX) Raydium’s (RAY) token rose over 26% because the week’s greatest gainer, adopted by the AB blockchain (AB) utility token, up over 19% on the weekly chart.
Thanks for studying our abstract of this week’s most impactful DeFi developments. Be part of us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and training concerning this dynamically advancing area.
