Here’s what happened in crypto today

Today in crypto, the price of the Mantra token collapsed. Its co-founder says they believe it may have been caused by one exchange in particular. Meanwhile, a non-fungible token (NFT) trader could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks.Mantra says one exchange 'in particular' may have caused OM collapseThe team behind real-world tokenized asset blockchain Mantra says its native token’s sudden 90% plunge was caused by exchanges forcibly closing positions without notice, with one currently unnamed exchange potentially to blame. On April 13, Mantra (OM) price dropped from $6.30 to below $0.50, rapidly shedding over 90% of its $6 billion market cap.“We have determined that the OM market movements were triggered by reckless forced closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders,” Mantra co-founder John Mullin wrote in an April 13 statement on X.“The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice,” he added. Mullin told an X user they believe one exchange “in particular” was to blame but said they were still “figuring out the details.” He told others that the centralized exchange in question wasn’t Binance. Mantra token collapses by 90% but retraces some valueThe price of the Mantra token collapsed by over 90% on April 13 but regained some lost value following statements from the Mantra team and co-founder JP Mullin.Mantra's (OM) price collapsed to a low of approximately $0.38 before crossing back over $1, and is currently at that level.According to the Mantra team, OM's price decline was due to "reckless liquidations" that the Mantra team is investigating."One thing we want to be clear on: this was not our team. We are looking into it and will share more details about what happened as soon as we can," the team wrote in an April 13 X post. NFT trader faces prison for $13 million tax fraud on CryptoPunk profitsA non-fungible token (NFT) trader could face up to six years in prison after pleading guilty to underreporting nearly $13 million in profits from trading CryptoPunks, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania.Waylon Wilcox, 45, admitted to filing false income tax returns for the 2021 and 2022 tax years. The former CryptoPunk investor pleaded guilty on April 9 to two counts of filing false individual income tax returns, federal prosecutors said in an April 11 press release.Back in April 2022, Wilcox filed a false individual income tax return for the tax year 2021, which underreported his income tax by roughly $8.5 million and reduced his tax due by approximately $2.1 million.In October 2023, Wilcox filed another false individual tax income return for the fiscal year of 2022, underreporting his income tax by an estimated $4.6 million and reducing his tax due by nearly $1.1 million.“The total maximum penalty under federal law for these offenses is up to six years of imprisonment, a term of supervised release following imprisonment, and a fine,” according to the statement. However, the exact details and timing of his sentence remain unclear.