Tokenization firm Libre announced plans to launch a $500 million Telegram Bond Fund (TBF) on the TON blockchain.
The move signifies a bold move to bridge traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized ecosystems.
Libre To Launch $500 Million Telegram Bond Fund
TBF marks a significant milestone in the growing trend of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, backed by over $2.35 billion in outstanding Telegram bonds.
It tokenizes existing Telegram debt, giving accredited investors access to institutional-grade fixed-income products with full on-chain utility.
With Libre’s initiative, the tokenized bond fund can serve as collateral for borrowing and on-chain product development within TON ecosystem. TON, or The Open Network, is increasingly integrated with Telegram’s 950 million-plus user base.
“What we’ve created is like a fixed income fund that acquires the bonds and then we tokenize the fund,” Libre CEO Avtar Sehra said in an interview.
Reportedly, when users purchase units in Libre’s Telegram Bond Fund on the TON chain, they can access the returns of the underlying bonds themselves.
Based on this dynamic, they can use the bonds for collateral and ease transfers. Ultimately, the bonds also help create utility with these financial instruments.
This development comes amid growing interest in Telegram’s yield bonds, whose structure bears a relatively high yield of up to 9.4%.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time Libre has ventured into this space. The tokenization firm recently tokenized over $200 million in assets across major institutional funds.
Among them are BlackRock, Brevan Howard, Hamilton Lane, and Nomura’s digital assets unit, Laser Digital.
Libre Bets on Telegram’s Unique Distribution Advantages
Much like Libre, Franklin Templeton is leveraging blockchain rails to modernize access to traditional yield-bearing assets. At the same time, the asset manager is enabling on-chain programmability and composability.
However, Libre’s decision to build on TON reflects a strategic bet on Telegram’s unique distribution advantages.
While Telegram originally developed it, TON blockchain is now a standalone project. However, it still retains deep integration with the messaging platform.
Over the past year, the network has introduced a series of crypto-native features aimed at mass adoption. One of the latest is a TON Space wallet update allowing users to pay gas fees with Telegram Stars. This move lowered the friction for interacting with blockchain-based assets.
This seamless connection between messaging and finance is central to Libre’s long-term vision. Sehra noted that many clients seek exposure to financial products embedded within ecosystems they already use.
With Telegram as a gateway and TON as the infrastructure, TBF could become a cornerstone of real-world financial integration in Web3.
Despite this report, however, TON TVL (Total Value Locked) continues to decline, down almost 2% in the last 24 hours to $136.2 million. In the same way, Toncoin (TON) price is down by almost 2% in the last 24 hours, and was trading for $3.23 as of this writing.
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.
Kraken has launched perpetual futures contracts for Pi Network’s native token, PI, allowing traders to take long or short positions with up to 20x leverage.
The move gives traders a new way to speculate on PI’s price without holding the asset itself. It also marks PI’s debut on a major derivatives platform, despite the token still lacking listings on top spot exchanges like Binance or Coinbase.
How PI Perpetual Futures on Kraken Will Work
Perpetual futures are derivative contracts with no expiration date. Traders can open positions that track the price of PI and settle profits or losses based on price movements over time.
On Kraken Pro, users can access these contracts with over 40 collateral options and across more than 360 markets.
This flexibility allows both hedging and speculative strategies. Traders bullish on Pi Network can go long, while skeptics can short the token—betting that its price will fall.
$PI@PiCoreTeam perpetual futures now live with up to 20x leverage
The listing introduces more liquidity into the PI market. Greater trading activity could reduce volatility in the long term. However, in the short term, leverage may amplify price swings.
Market sentiment around PI is already fragile. Concerns over centralization—60% of the token supply remains under core team control.
PI Network Price Chart In May 2025. Source: TradingView
With futures now in play, bearish traders may open leveraged shorts, potentially accelerating PI’s downward momentum.
Meanwhile, increased volatility could trigger liquidations on both sides, causing sudden price spikes or crashes.
While the futures listing opens new opportunities, it also raises the stakes. Traders should monitor funding rates and open interest to gauge the strength of directional bets.
Overall, Kraken’s move brings new visibility to Pi Network. But for now, there is a lot of skepticism regarding the altcoin’s direction in the spot market.
40+ collateral options
