Red flag? Mantra's TVL jumped 500% as OM price collapsed

The total-value-locked (TVL) on Mantra’s RWA blockchain protocol reached a yearly high despite OM’s 90% price crash.

As of April 15, Mantra’s TVL (in OM terms) jumped to 4.21 million OM (~$3.24 million), an increase of over 500% from two days prior, according to data resource DefiLlama.

Mantra’s cumulative TVL chart. Source: DefiLlama.

Interestingly, the TVL rise accompanied a dramatic collapse in OM prices, which plunged over 90% during the weekend. The Mantra team attributed the sell-off to “reckless forced liquidations” initiated by centralized exchanges.

A rising TVL typically indicates that users are locking more tokens into a protocol’s smart contracts via staking, liquidity pools, lending, or farming for yield or network participation.

Analyst DOM spotted “aggressive buying” on crypto exchanges during the 90% OM price crash on April 13, amounting to $35 million worth of OM purchases when “the [Mantra] collapse was happening.”

Mantra total aggregated spot CVD vs. Binance spot price. Source: DOM

Despite the 90% price crash, the simultaneous TVL spike and “aggressive buying” suggest that certain participants saw the collapse as a buying opportunity.

The fact that millions of dollars were deployed while the crash unfolded points to tactical accumulation, possibly by whales, insiders, or opportunistic speculators betting on a rebound or farming incentives.

As of April 15, OM’s price was trading for as high as $0.99, up around 170% from the weekend lows.

OM/USDT daily price chart. Source: TradingView

Increases in Mantra’s TVL accompany red flags.

For instance, around 97% of Mantra’s TVL growth came from Mantra Swap, the protocol’s native decentralized exchange. Its automated market-making pools accounted for 4.11 million OM in TVL, making it the primary driver behind the sharp uptick.

Mantra Swap TVL performance chart. Source: DefiLlama

A more decentralized ecosystem would have a greater capital distribution with multiple liquidity sources across lending markets, staking platforms, derivatives, etc.

Related: Mantra says one particular exchange may have caused OM collapse

Additionally, Mantra’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) of $1.88 billion as of April 15 dwarfs the total value locked (TVL) of $3.24 million, a glaring disconnect that could signal potential overvaluation.

Mantra TVL vs. FDV (in dollar terms). Source: DefiLlama

With only 0.17% of its theoretical value actively deployed in its ecosystem, the protocol shows low capital efficiency and limited real-world usage.

This imbalance suggests the market cap is likely driven more by speculation than adoption, and with a large portion of tokens likely still locked, there’s a high risk of future dilution as vested tokens are unlocked.

Analyst JamesBitunix posed Mantra’s FDV as a huge risk to OM dip buyers, saying:

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.