Manta Network suspected of dumping, are retail investors being taken advantage of again?

Manta Network $MANTA is focused on designing a privacy-preserving L2 blockchain. Recently, it participated in the 44th phase of Binance Launchpool, which further increased its already high attention due to the New Paradigm. This has raised the anticipation among participants in the cryptocurrency community, and MANTA is set to begin trading on Binance at 18:00 on January 18th.

Binance Launchpool - Manta Network MANTA raised $5.8 billion, making it the tenth largest project after Base.

Manta Team Accused of Market Manipulation and Money Laundering

However, just one hour before the trading pairs were opened, there were reports of the RPC endpoint of Manta Network crashing due to a DDoS attack. Users were unable to claim their airdrops at that time, and there was a temporary disruption in the trading prices. Despite this, users still couldn't claim their airdrops or withdraw tokens from the chain to the exchange, leading the community to mockingly refer to it as a "toilet data manipulation."

The suspicions surrounding Manta Network's transactions do not stop there. According to South Korean crypto KOL Definalist's disclosure, there was a large transaction involving Manta Network right before the token listing, which may have involved dumping.

According to on-chain data tracking, the wallet belongs to a Manta Network employee in South Korea. Through this transaction, the wallet received up to 2 million $MANTA tokens and successfully dumped them when there was a shortage in supply due to the frontend crash during the initial trading period. They made a total of $5.162 million, with an average trading price of $2.58, slightly higher than the current price by 20%.

In addition to the possibility of team members selling tokens during the network outage, the Korean community also suspects these actions may involve money laundering. This employee who sold the tokens had only been with Manta Network for five months and should not have had such a large allocation. However, the Manta team denies the community's accusations and states that the funds were intended for expanding the Korean market. They claim that the funds associated with the employee's address were operational expenses allocated to the Korean branch from the token model's Ecosystem/Community project.

In fact, the controversy surrounding Manta Network's token issuance does not end there. Manta Network was originally a Polkadot ecosystem project and held a token public sale on the Tokensoft platform in 2021, raising $28.8 million. However, the community believed that Manta Network did not actively provide cross-chain integration measures for Polkadot and faced RPC overload, preventing many people from obtaining the tokens.

Manta Network: Innovator in Privacy Protection

Manta Network is dedicated to developing and providing privacy protection technology for blockchain. It has built a modular Layer2 ecosystem specifically designed for zero-knowledge (ZK) DApps, offering a low-cost and efficient user experience.

The co-founders of Manta Network come from Ivy League schools and have years of industry experience. In the final funding round before the official launch, Manta Network received investments from top web3 VCs such as Binance Labs and Polychain Capital, with a valuation of $500 million, not far from the current market capitalization.

Expanding Asian Markets: Manta Network's Strategic Presence in South Korea and Hong Kong

Manta Network is actively expanding its business in South Korea and Hong Kong. In addition to establishing local branches, they aim to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of local people and integrate with different markets' WEB3 ecosystems. Manta Network's modular Layer2 ecosystem and zero-knowledge application development show great potential.

According to Manta Pacific's roadmap, it will be the first project to transition from Optimistic Rollup to Validium zkEVM L2. This transition will be achieved using Polygon CDK, significantly reducing gas fees and increasing security through Ethereum consensus and cryptographic proof of on-chain activities. It can be said that this is a highly forward-looking L2 solution.

According to official data from Manta Network, the Manta wallet has been installed over 200,000 times, and the comprehensive project ecosystem of Manta Network has reached over 1.5 million users.

Manta Network Market Performance

According to data from Coingecko, nearly 80% of the current trading volume of $MANTA is taking place on Binance exchange, demonstrating the influence of new coin mining. As of the time of writing, $MANTA is temporarily trading at $2.18, with a 16% decrease in the past 24 hours.

According to data from Defillama, Manta Network currently has a TVL (Total Value Locked) of $410 million, which has grown 23 times in the past month. It is currently the tenth largest blockchain, with LayerBank being the largest DApp on Manta Network, accounting for over 70% of the TVL.