MANTRA halts chain after Cosmos EVM incident, token sets new record low
Security & Exploits ·
The blockchain froze all transactions on August 21 after developers spotted a fault in its Cosmos EVM module, and the native token fell to a fresh all-time low before paring some losses.
MANTRA said the incident was contained to two wallet addresses and that no user funds were exploited, according to CryptoPotato. The team halted all endpoints and transactions as a precaution while it investigated, temporarily suspending deposits, withdrawals, transfers and staking operations across the network. Developers have since identified the root cause and are testing a patched v8.4.0 release on the DuKong testnet, with a coordinated mainnet upgrade and restart targeted for later the same day if testing clears. Validators have been instructed to keep mainnet nodes offline until an official restart announcement.
The token, which trades under the MANTRA ticker following a 1:4 non-dilutive redenomination from the former OM ticker completed in March, dropped more than 18% after the halt, sliding from roughly $0.0050 to $0.0041 and hitting a new record low, a figure also cited at $0.004126 by CoinDesk. The price has since recovered somewhat to trade near $0.0046, though that remains about 82% below the token's March 4 all-time high of $0.02627.
The team said it took a full network snapshot before beginning the restart process, and has pledged a full post-mortem once the network resumes normal operation.
The incident lands against a backdrop of prior turmoil for the project. OM collapsed from above $6 to below $1 in under an hour on April 14, 2025, erasing roughly 90% of its market value and triggering liquidations exceeding $70 million, a crash the project's leadership attributed at the time to forced closures by centralized exchanges. That fallout extended into January 2026, when MANTRA cut staff across several teams, citing a cost base left too high by its 2024 and early-2025 expansion.
What remains unresolved is whether the mainnet restart proceeds on the announced timeline, and what the promised post-mortem will reveal about how the Cosmos EVM vulnerability arose and whether it carries implications beyond the two affected wallet addresses.