Mango Markets to Wind Down Operations

Solana-based decentralized exchange Mango Markets will conclude its operations on Monday following an SEC settlement mandating the destruction of MNGO tokens and their delisting from all exchanges.

“Mango v4 & Boost are winding down,” the protocol’s X account announced on Saturday. “Most borrowing on Mango will be economically unviable going forward.”

Proposed changes to interest rates and collateral requirements aimed at dissuading borrowing and lending will be executable on Monday, Jan. 13, at 8 p.m. UTC; both proposals currently enjoy unanimous support and meet the necessary threshold for passage.

Mango’s Tumultuous History

Mango Markets gained notoriety after Avraham ‘Avi’ Eisenberg exploited it in October 2022, draining $110 million from the platform through what he termed a “highly profitable trading strategy,” manipulating the price of its native MNGO token on other exchanges. Eisenberg was convicted in April of this year on fraud charges related to the exploit but has since sought a new trial.

In September 2024, Mango’s governance DAO settled an SEC lawsuit that accused Mango DAO, Mango Labs, and a Panama entity known as Blockworks Foundation of selling unregistered crypto assets and functioning as an unregistered broker.

By late 2024, Mango’s DAO faced further issues, with some co-founders and core contributors suing each other over a batch of locked MNGO tokens purchased from the FTX estate.

Co-founder Maximilian Schneider remarked on Discord on Jan. 3 that all active contributors appeared to want to cease work on Mango, particularly on Mango v4 & Boost, leading to discussions about a “graceful shutdown”. Following consensus among team members, Mango Markets has decided to wind down operations.

Mango Markets did not comment on a request from The Block.