Cardano (ADA) is up 4% on Monday, trying to hit $0.65, showing signs of renewed bullish momentum. Technical indicators are beginning to align in favor of buyers, with the BBTrend turning positive for the first time in days and the DMI signaling strengthening upward pressure.
ADA is also nearing a potential golden cross formation on its EMA lines, which could further support a breakout if resistance levels are cleared. With momentum building and key levels in sight, Cardano is entering a critical zone that could define its short-term direction.
Cardano Shows Early Signs of Recovery as BBTrend Turns Positive
Cardano BBTrend has just flipped back into positive territory at 0.11, following four straight days in the negative zone. This shift, though subtle, may be the first sign of momentum stabilizing after recent weakness.
BBTrend, or Bollinger Band Trend, is a technical indicator that gauges the strength and direction of a trend based on how wide or narrow the Bollinger Bands are.
When the bands begin to expand and BBTrend moves into positive values, it often suggests growing volatility in favor of an emerging bullish trend. On the other hand, prolonged negative readings typically signal fading momentum and a lack of directional strength.
While a BBTrend of 0.11 is still low and not yet signaling a strong uptrend, the fact that it turned positive marks a potential inflection point.
It suggests that selling pressure may be fading and the price could be entering a recovery phase if buying activity increases. This early uptick in BBTrend often precedes a broader move.
Traders will likely be watching closely to see if this positive shift is sustained in the coming sessions, as continued gains in BBTrend could indicate the beginning of a more defined upward move for ADA.
Cardano Buyers Regain Control as Uptrend Shows Early Strength
Cardano Directional Movement Index (DMI) is showing a notable shift in momentum, with its Average Directional Index (ADX) climbing to 17.79, up from 13.77 yesterday.
The ADX measures the strength of a trend, regardless of its direction, on a scale from 0 to 100. Values below 20 suggest a weak or non-existent trend, while readings above 25 typically confirm that a trend is gaining strength.
ADA’s ADX is still below the 20 threshold but rising steadily—indicating that momentum is building and a stronger directional move could soon take shape.
Looking deeper, the +DI (positive directional indicator) has jumped to 26.38 from 16.30 just a day ago, signaling increased buying pressure. Although it has slightly pulled back from an earlier peak at 29.57, it remains firmly above the -DI (negative directional indicator), which has dropped significantly from 22.72 to 13.73.
This widening gap between the +DI and -DI suggests a clear shift in favor of bulls, with buyers regaining control after a brief period of selling pressure.
If the ADX continues to rise alongside a dominant +DI, it could confirm a strengthening uptrend for Cardano.
Cardano Nears Golden Cross as Bulls Eye Breakout—but Key Support Still in Play
Cardano price is approaching a potentially bullish technical development, as its EMA lines suggest a golden cross may form in the coming sessions.
A golden cross occurs when the short-term moving average crosses above the long-term moving average, often signaling the start of a stronger uptrend.
If this crossover is confirmed and ADA manages to break above the resistance at $0.668, the next upside targets sit at $0.709 and $0.77—levels not seen since late March.
However, if ADA fails to maintain its upward trajectory and the momentum fades, downside risks remain in play.
A drop back toward the $0.594 support would be the first sign of weakness, and a breakdown below that level could expose the asset to deeper losses, with $0.511 as the next key support zone.
Price action around the $0.668 resistance will likely be the deciding factor.
Token unlocks have the power to move markets. They inject fresh liquidity, trigger price swings, and influence investors’ feelings about a project. During these events, projects release previously locked tokens, making them available for public trading.
This week, three major projects are stepping into the spotlight—Scroll (SCR), Plume Network (PLUME), and Altlayer (ALT)—as they prepare to release a wave of tokens into circulation.
Scroll (SCR)
Unlock Date: April 22
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 40 million SCR (4% of Total Supply)
Current Circulating Supply: 190 million
Total supply: 1 billion SCR
Scroll is a Layer 2 solution that boosts Ethereum’s scalability and efficiency. It uses zkRollup technology to lower transaction costs and increase throughput, helping ease issues like high gas fees and congestion.
On April 22, 40 million SCR tokens, valued at about $9.2 million, will be unlocked. This unlock could introduce added liquidity to the market and maybe renewed interest in Scroll.
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 108.34 million PLUME (1.08% of Total Supply)
Current Circulating Supply: 2 billion
Total supply: 10 billion Plume
Plume Network is a Layer 1 blockchain that brings real-world assets onto the chain. From fine art to green energy, it enables diverse asset-backed investments with fast, low-cost transactions. The network seamlessly integrates these assets into a composable RWAfi ecosystem, enhancing their utility and enabling broader financial interactions.
The April 21 unlock will consist of over 108 million PLUME tokens valued at about $17.82 million at press time. Early backers and contributors will receive the majority of these tokens, while the team will allocate 7% for a community airdrop.
Number of Tokens to be Unlocked: 240.80 million ALT (2.41% of Total Supply)
Current Circulating Supply: 3.03 billion
Total supply: 10 billion ALT
AltLayer is a project focusing on enhancing blockchain scalability through Restaked Rollups. It uses “Restaked Rollups,” integrating existing rollup stacks like OP Stack and Arbitrum Orbit with EigenLayer’s restaking mechanism for improved security and decentralization.
On April 25, AltLayer will unlock 240 million ALT tokens, releasing approximately $6.5 million worth into the market. This unlock could introduce added liquidity to the market and maybe renewed interest in Altlayer. The network will allocate the majority of these tokens to the Foundation, and for protocol development.
The collapse of the MANTRA (OM) token has left investors reeling, with many facing significant losses. As analysts comb through the causes of the collapse, many questions remain.
BeInCrypto consulted industry experts to identify five critical red flags behind MANTRA’s downfall and reveal strategies investors can adopt to steer clear of similar pitfalls in the future.
MANTRA (OM) Crash: What Investors Missed and How to Avoid Future Losses
On April 13, BeInCrypto broke the news of OM’s 90% crash. The collapse raised several concerns, with investors accusing the team of orchestrating a pump-and-dump scheme. Experts believe that there were many early signs of trouble.
In addition, the project adopted an inflationary tokenomic model with an uncapped supply, replacing the previous hard cap. As part of this transition, the total token supply was also increased to 1.7 billion.
However, the move wasn’t without drawbacks. According to Jean Rausis, co-founder of SMARDEX, tokenomics was a point of concern in the OM collapse.
“The project doubled its token supply to 1.77 billion in 2024 and shifted to an inflationary model, which diluted its original holders. Complex vesting favored insiders, while low circulating supply and massive FDV fueled hype and price manipulation,” Jean Rausis told BeInCrypto.
Moreover, the team’s control over the OM supply also raised centralization concerns. Experts believe this was also a factor that could have led to the alleged price manipulation.
“About 90% of OM tokens were held by the team, indicating a high level of centralization that could potentially lead to manipulation. The team also maintained control over governance, which undermined the project’s decentralized nature,” said Phil Fogel, co-founder of Cork.
Phil Fogel acknowledged that a concentrated token supply isn’t always a red flag. However, it’s crucial for investors to know who holds large amounts, their lock-up terms, and whether their involvement aligns with the project’s decentralization goals.
Moreover, Ming Wu, the founder of RabbitX, also argued that analyzing this data is essential to uncover any potential risks that could undermine the project in the long term.
“Tools like bubble maps can help identify potential risks related to token distribution,” Wu advised.
2. OM Price Action
2025 has been marked as the year of significant market volatility. The broader macroeconomic pressures have weighed heavily on the market, with the majority of the coins experiencing steep losses. Yet, OM’s price action was relatively stable until the latest crash.
OM vs. TOTAL Market Performance. Source: TradingView
“The biggest red flag was simply the price action. The whole market was going down, and nobody cared about MANTRA, and yet its token price somehow kept pumping in unnatural patterns – pump, flat, pump, flat again,” Jean Rausis disclosed.
He added that this was a clear sign of a potential issue or problem with the project. Nevertheless, he noted that identifying the differentiating price action would require some technical analysis know-how. Thus, investors lacking the knowledge would have easily missed it.
Despite this, Rausis highlighted that even the untrained eye could find other signs that something was off, ultimately leading to the crash.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
While investors remained optimistic about OM’s resilience amid a market downturn, this ended up costing them millions. Eric He, LBank’s Community Angel Officer, and Risk Control Adviser emphasized the importance of proactive risk management to avoid OM-style collapses.
“First, diversification is key—spreading capital across projects limits single-token exposure. Stop-loss triggers (e.g., 10-20% below buy price) can automate damage control in volatile conditions,” Eric shared with BeInCrypto.
Ming Wu had a similar perspective, emphasizing the importance of avoiding over-allocation to a single token. The executive explained that a diversified investment strategy helps mitigate risk and enhances overall portfolio stability.
“Investors can use perpetual futures as a risk management tool to hedge against potential price declines in their holdings,” Wu remarked.
Meanwhile, Phil Fogel advised focusing on a token’s liquidity. Key factors include the float size, price sensitivity to sell orders, and who can significantly impact the market.
3. Project Fundamentals
Experts also highlighted major discrepancies in MANTRA’s TVL. Eric He pointed out a significant gap between the token’s fully diluted valuation (FDV) and the TVL. OM’s FDV reached $9.5 billion, while its TVL was only $13 million, indicating a potential overvaluation.
“A $9.5 billion valuation against $13 million TVL, screamed instability,” Forest Bai, co-founder of Foresight Ventures, stated.
Notably, several issues were also raised regarding the airdrop. Jean Rausis called the airdrop a “mess.” He cited many issues, including delays, frequent changes to eligibility rules, and the disqualification of half the participants. Meanwhile, suspected bots were not removed.
“The airdrop disproportionately favored insiders while excluding genuine supporters, reflecting a lack of fairness,” Phil Fogel reiterated.
The criticism expanded further as Fogel pointed out the team’s alleged associations with questionable entities and ties to questionable initial coin offerings (ICOs), raising doubts about the project’s credibility. Eric He also suggested that MANTRA was allegedly tied to gambling platforms in the past.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
Forest Bai underscored the importance of verifying the project team’s credentials, reviewing the project roadmap, and monitoring on-chain activity to ensure transparency. He also advised investors to assess community engagement and regulatory compliance to gauge the project’s long-term viability.
Ming Wu also stressed distinguishing between real growth and artificially inflated metrics.
“It’s important to differentiate real growth from activity that’s artificially inflated through incentives or airdrops, unsustainable tactics like ‘selling a dollar for 90 cents’ may generate short-term metrics but don’t reflect actual engagement,” Wu informed BeInCrypto.
Finally, Wu recommended researching the background of the project’s team members to uncover any history of fraudulent activity or involvement in questionable ventures. This would ensure that investors are well-informed before committing to any project.
4. Whale Movements
As BeInCrypto reported earlier, before the crash, a whale wallet reportedly associated with the MANTRA team deposited 3.9 million OM tokens into the OKX exchange. Experts highlighted that this wasn’t an isolated incident.
“Large OM transfers (43.6 million tokens, ~$227 million) to exchanges days prior were a major warning of potential sell-offs,” Forest Bai conveyed to BeInCrypto.
Ming Wu also explained that investors should pay close attention to such large transfers, which often act as warning signals. Moreover, analysts at CryptoQuant also outlined what investors should look out for.
“OM transfers into exchanges amounted to as much as $35 million in just an hour. This represented an alert sign as: Transfers into exchanges are below $8 million in a typical hour (excluding transfers into Binance, which are typically large given the size of the exchange). Transfers into exchanges represented more than a third of the total OM transferred, which indicates a high transfer volume into exchanges,” CryptoQuant informed BeInCrypto.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
CryptoQuant stated that investors need to monitor the flows of any token into exchanges, as it could indicate increasing price volatility in the near future.
Meanwhile, Risk Control Adviser Eric He outlined four strategies to stay up-to-date when it comes to large transfers.
Chain Sleuthing: Tools like Arkham and Nansen allow investors to track large transfers and monitor wallet activity.
Set Alerts: Platforms like Etherscan and Glassnode notify investors of unusual market movements.
Track Exchange Flows: Users need to track large flows into centralized exchanges.
Check Lockups: Dune Analytics helps investors determine if team tokens are being released earlier than expected.
He also recommended focusing on the market structure.
“OM’s crash proved market depth is non-negotiable: Kaiko data showed 1% order book depth collapsed 74% before the fall. Always check liquidity metrics on platforms like Kaiko; if 1% depth is below $500,000, that’s a red flag,” Eric revealed to BeInCrypto.
Additionally, Phil Fogel underlined the importance of monitoring platforms like X (formerly Twitter) for any rumors or discussions about possible dumps. He stressed the need to analyze liquidity to assess whether a token can handle sell pressure without causing a significant price drop.
Interestingly, experts were slightly divided on how CEXs contributed to OM’s crash. Forest Bai claimed that CEX liquidations during low-liquidity hours worsened the crash by triggering cascading sell-offs. Eric He corroborated this sentiment.
“CEX liquidations played a major role in the OM crash, acting as an accelerant. With thin liquidity—1% depth falling from $600,000 to $147,000—forced closures triggered cascading liquidations. Over $74.7 million was wiped in 24 hours,” he mentioned.
“Analyzing the open interest in the OM derivatives market reveals that it was less than 0.1% of OM’s market capitalization. However, what’s particularly interesting is that during the market collapse, open interest in OM derivatives actually increased by 90%,” Wu expressed to BeInCrypto.
According to the executive, this challenges the idea that liquidations or forced closures caused the price drop. Instead, it indicates that traders and investors increased their short positions as the price fell.
Strategies to Protect Yourself
While the involvement of CEXs remains debatable, the experts did address the key point of investor protection.
“Investors can limit leverage to avoid forced liquidations, choose platforms with transparent risk policies, monitor open interest for liquidation risks, and hold tokens in self-custody wallets to reduce CEX exposure,” Forest Bai recommended.
Eric He also advised that investors should mitigate risks by adjusting leverage dynamically based on volatility. If tools like ATR or Bollinger Bands signal turbulence, exposure should be reduced.
The MANTRA (OM) collapse is a powerful reminder of the importance of due diligence and risk management in cryptocurrency investments. Investors can minimize the risk of falling into similar traps by carefully assessing tokenomics, monitoring on-chain data, and diversifying investments.
With expert insights, these strategies will help guide investors toward smarter, more secure decisions in the crypto market.
Ethena Labs is officially closing its German branch and EU operations after a previous MiCA application rejection. For the past month, the firm has been preparing to withdraw from this market.
Although the exit was anticipated, ENA reacted notably, with the altcoin falling over 7% after today’s announcement.
At the time, the firm suggested that this was a minor setback and that it would focus on other markets. Today, it announced that its German branch is winding down altogether.
“We have agreed with BaFin to wind down all activities of Ethena GmbH and will no longer be pursuing the MiCAR authorization in Germany. All whitelisted… users previously interacting with Ethena GmbH have at their request been onboarded with Ethena (BVI) Limited instead. As a result, Ethena GmbH no longer has any direct customers,” it claimed.
The statement further claimed that Ethena GmbH, the German branch, “has not conducted any mint or redeem activity” since the regulators’ MiCA ruling.
Specifically, regulators banned all sales of the USDe stablecoin, putting serious restrictions on the firm. In other words, this outcome is fairly expected. Ethena (BVI) Limited has taken over the German branch’s users.
The network’s governance token, ENA, has seen notable price swings around its MiCA efforts. In Early March, when Ethena Labs was reportedly on track to receive regulatory approval, ENA broke out of multi-month lows and nearly reached $2.5 billion in mark cap.
However, since the rejection, ENA saw continued bearish pressure, which was exacerbated by the macroeconomic conditions across the market. Today’s announcement drove further decline.
