Is 'Ruin Retail' Crypto’s MANTRA?

It’s another week in crypto—and the drama is back.

Just when we thought we’ve dodged the external, Tariff-headed demons coming at our portfolios, here comes another internal one:  Insider-trading woes.

In Today’s Edition

🌕Market Watch
🌕Mantra Woes
🌕CZ a Snitch?
🌕McDonalds and Bitcoin

Let’s get into the stories ⇒

Market Watch 🔍

Markets exhaled over the weekend as President Trump partially walked back his sweeping tariff policy, exempting semiconductor and electronics imports. 

Risk assets surged in response, with Bitcoin bouncing to ~$84K—up 6% on the week—while Solana stole the show, jumping 21% to $130. Meanwhile, ETH held steady near $1.6K. 

With Powell set to speak midweek and earnings season kicking off (10% of the S&P 500 reports), equities are poised for more volatility, but for now, crypto is basking in the glow of relief.

BTC dominance stayed flat around 63.5%, but altcoins found fresh legs. 

Small-cap memecoins and onchain trends are booming: RFC is up 519%, Housecoin 234%, and Buttcoin 105%. 

New entrant Prompt surged from a $40M to $130M market cap, while pppp (Fartcoin beta) and MUTUMBO also ran hot. 

Telegram-based trench trading volumes doubled off the lows, and mindshare has pivoted hard toward newer names like Figure and RFC.

On the institutional front, Japan’s Metaplanet added another $26M in BTC, pushing its holdings near the top 10 among public companies. 

Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial picked up $775K worth of SEI tokens, expanding its crypto basket to include BTC, ETH, TRX, MOVE, and ONDO.

Options markets confirm the mood shift: BTC’s $100K calls are now the most popular bet with $1.2B in open interest. 

The panic from last week’s dip under $75K is fading fast—and for now, momentum is back on the bulls’ side.

Mantra is Crypto’s Latest Casualty 💔

Mantra’s OM token, once a darling of the RWA hype cycle, nosedived 90% in under two hours this weekend—evoking flashbacks of Terra’s implosion. 

The project’s leadership blamed the selloff on “reckless forced liquidations” initiated by centralized exchanges, not any internal failure. But traders are not entirely convinced.

The token, which soared over 400% this year on minimal fanfare and partnered with UAE’s DAMAC Group to tokenize $1 billion in real estate, crashed from $6 to under $0.50 during low-liquidity trading hours. 

Mantra’s co-founder, John Patrick Mullin, claimed the plunge was triggered by sudden forced closures on OM accounts, alleging possible “intentional market positioning” by exchanges.

OM-tracked futures recorded over $50 million in liquidations—an all-time high for the token—and open interest halved from $345 million to $130 million. 

In an X post, Mullin reiterated that the team had nothing to do with the crash, but critics noted suspicious token transfers leading up to the selloff. One wallet reportedly sent over 4.3 million OM tokens to OKX just hours before the collapse.

Skepticism runs deep, with TVL sitting at only $13 million while OM’s fully diluted valuation was a whopping $9.5 billion pre-crash. 

Past accusations of insider control over token supply, and a pending Hong Kong court case over alleged DAO asset misappropriation, now loom larger.

Whether this was market manipulation, platform overreach, or something more nefarious—OM’s downfall is a cautionary tale in an industry still learning how to self-regulate.

Interestingly, Token Metrics AI had  already spotted a bearish signal for the token—warning of multiple holder risks that could’ve plunged investors fund.

And so it happened. 

CZ’s Drama: Denials, Diplomacy, and Deals

Binance founder Changpeng “CZ” Zhao is back in headlines.

This time, he’s swatting down a Wall Street Journal report alleging he handed over evidence against TRON founder Justin Sun as part of his plea deal with the U.S. Department of Justice. 

CZ, who recently served a four-month prison sentence for violating the Bank Secrecy Act, dismissed the story as a “smear campaign,” hinting at ulterior motives behind the report.

“People who become gov witnesses don’t go to prison,” he wrote on X—ignoring cases like Caroline Ellison’s.

Sun also sought to cool speculation, reaffirming his friendship with CZ and praising his team’s cooperation with the DOJ through the TRON-Tether-TRM Labs task force aimed at tackling crypto crime.

Meanwhile, the WSJ report also alleges Binance executives are lobbying the U.S. Treasury to scale back its oversight—specifically seeking to lift the monitorship imposed by FinCEN. 

Binance is also reportedly in talks to list USD1, a Trump-linked stablecoin backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries.

Despite the noise, BNB is holding steady, and Binance’s legal dance with the SEC continues, with both parties filing for another 60-day pause in their separate lawsuit.

What The Coin Is Going On? 🪙 

1. Pennsylvania man could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to filing false tax returns that concealed millions of dollars in income from sales of CryptoPunks.

2. Owners of Shares in McDonalds are pushing for a Bitcoin-treasury strategy. But the SEC isn’t excited.

3. Here’s where people around the world are getting exposure to AI.

4. Gold Vs. Bitcoin: Which is doing better this year?

5. Get clear takeaways from today's episode on Spotify and Apple.