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 buyers 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 “critical” liquidity points in crypto
Mantra’s current token collapse highlights a problem throughout the crypto business of fluctuating weekend liquidity ranges creating further 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 buyers, Cointelegraph reported.
While blockchain analysts are nonetheless piecing collectively the explanations behind the OM collapse, the occasion highlights some essential points for the crypto business, in response to Gracy Chen, CEO of the cryptocurrency change Bitget.
“The OM token crash exposed several critical issues that we are seeing not just in OM, but also as an industry,” Chen mentioned throughout Cointelegraph’s Chainreaction every day X show, including:
“When it’s a token that’s too concentrated, the wealth concentration and the very opaque governance, together with sudden exchange inflows and outflows, […] combined with the forced liquidation during very low liquidity hours in our industry, created the big drop off.”
Crypto in a bear market, rebound seemingly in Q3 — Coinbase
A month-to-month market evaluate by publicly traded US-based crypto change Coinbase reveals that whereas the crypto market has contracted, it seems to be gearing up for a greater quarter.
According to Coinbase’s April 15 month-to-month outlook for institutional buyers, the altcoin market cap shrank by 41% from its December 2024 highs of $1.6 trillion to $950 billion by mid-April. BTC Tools knowledge reveals that this metric touched a low of $906.9 billion on April 9 and stood at $976.9 billion on the time of writing.
Venture capital funding to crypto initiatives has reportedly decreased by 50%–60% from 2021–22. In the report, Coinbase’s world head of analysis, David Duong, highlighted {that a} new crypto winter could also be upon us.
“Several converging signals may be pointing to the start of a new ‘crypto winter’ as some extreme negative sentiment has set in due to the onset of global tariffs and the potential for further escalations,” he mentioned.
Manta founder particulars tried Zoom hack by Lazarus that used very actual “legit faces”
Manta Network co-founder Kenny Li mentioned he was focused by a complicated phishing assault on Zoom that used dwell recordings of acquainted individuals in an try and 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 could see their legit faces. Everything looked very real. But I couldn’t hear them. It said my Zoom needs an update. But it asked me to download a script file. I immediately 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 mentioned 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 had been deleted, throughout which Li initially instructed shifting the decision over to Google Meet.
Speaking with Cointelegraph, Li mentioned he believed the dwell photographs used within the video name had been taken from previous recordings of actual group members.
“It didn’t seem AI-generated. The quality looked like what a typical webcam quality looks like.”
AI tokens, memecoins dominate crypto narratives in Q1 2025: CoinGecko
The cryptocurrency market continues to be recycling previous narratives, with few new traits but to emerge and exchange the main themes within the first quarter of 2025.
Artificial intelligence tokens and memecoins had been the dominant crypto narratives within the first quarter of 2025, accounting for 62.8% of investor curiosity, in response to a quarterly analysis report by CoinGecko. AI tokens captured 35.7% of worldwide 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 had been memecoin classes whereas 5 had been AI-related.
“Seems like we have yet to see another new narrative emerge and we are still following past quarters’ trends,” mentioned Bobby Ong, the co-founder and chief working officer of CoinGecko, in an April 17 X post. “I guess we are all tired from the same old trends repeating themselves.”
Crypto lending down 43% from 2021 highs, DeFi borrowing surges 959%
The crypto lending market’s measurement 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 response to a Galaxy Digital analysis report revealed on April 14.
“The decline can be attributed to the decimation of lenders on the supply side and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side,” in response to Zack Pokorny, analysis affiliate at Galaxy Digital.
The decline within the crypto lending market began in 2022 when centralized finance (CeFi) lenders Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi and Voyager filed for chapter inside two years as crypto valuations fell.
Their collective downfall led to an estimated 78% collapse within the measurement of the lending market, with CeFi lending dropping 82% of its open borrows, in response to the report.
DeFi market overview
According to 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 largest 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. Join us subsequent Friday for extra tales, insights and training concerning this dynamically advancing house.
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