Reef Finance founder gets dragged into Mantra meltdown drama

As the dust settles from the recent crash of OM, the native token of the Mantra blockchain, speculation and finger-pointing continue to ripple through the crypto community. The token lost nearly 90% of its value in a single day, plummeting to as low as $0.50 before stabilizing slightly at $0.66 at the time of writing.

Much of the latest scrutiny stems from a personal investigation shared by the prominent crypto investigator ZachXBT on X. The investigator accused Denko Mancheski, the founder of Reef Finance and another X user, Fukogoryushu, of suspicious behavior in the days leading up to the crash.

Reef Finance founder named in OM crash

ZachXBT was responding to a Cointelegraph post on the matter, which stated, “Mantra investors deny dumping $OM before crash, despite onchain data showing $227M in $OM moved to exchanges ahead of the collapse.”

He wrote, “The two names I keep hearing tied to the Mantra incident are Denko (Reef Finance founder) and Fukogoryushu, as they had allegedly been reaching out to a number of people asking for massive loans against their OM in the days leading up to the -90% crash.”

ZachXBT also pointed out that Reef Finance has a documented history of controversy, including market manipulation allegations that preceded Binance’s delisting of the token in October 2024 and a controversial $80 million OTC deal with the infamous Alameda Research in 2021.

According to ZachXBT, he got those names after speaking with many people, and it turned out that some users were offered deals by Fukogoryushu.

Vortex, an algorithmic market maker and token adviser, confirmed that Fukogoryushu reached out to them before the OM crash with a request to provide a loan against his position. While it doesn’t show any sign of wrongdoing, it adds another layer of suspicion on their intentions.

Exchange dumps and on-chain suspicion

More red flags have emerged from blockchain data. According to analytics shared by Lookonchain on X, at least 43.6 million OM tokens, representing 4.5% of the total circulating supply, were deposited into exchanges by 17 wallets ahead of the crash. Two of those wallets were reportedly linked to Laser Digital, a crypto investor that backs Mantra.

Arkham Intelligence data shows one of these wallets deposited over $41 million worth of OM to crypto exchange OKX on April 11. However, Laser Digital released a statement on X denying any wrongdoing, saying, “Laser has no involvement in the recent price collapse of $OM…”

They also wrote, “As part of our core investment in Mantra, we want to clarify that Laser Digital has not sold any tokens we are due to receive.”

When asked about what he thought was the involvement of Laser Digital and Shorooq in the crash of OM, ZachXBT said that they weren’t the culprits based on his findings. He also added, “However, I do not know the extent of how much the Mantra team knew about the actions of Denko.”

Meanwhile, speculation has also turned inward, with some community members questioning whether Mantra CEO and co-founder John Patrick Mullin and the project team were aware of, or complicit in, the token’s sudden downturn.

In an official statement, Mantra attempted to distance itself from the incident, stating that the actions that caused OM’s dramatic dip were reckless liquidations which had nothing to do with the project. They added, “One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team.”

Still, many investors remain unconvinced, and what becomes of the token and blockchain looks to be seen in the near future.As of the time of writing this story, Denko and Fukoguryushu had not released any statement on the matter.

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