What is Manna (MANNA) crypto coin? The truth about the UBI blockchain experiment
Aug, 31 2025
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When you hear "Manna" in crypto, you might think of a next-gen digital currency with real-world use. But the truth is, Manna (MANNA) isn’t a currency you can spend. It’s not a store of value. It’s not even something you can easily sell. What it is, is a 10-year-old experiment in giving free money to everyone - on blockchain.
It started as a radical idea: free money for everyone
In 2015, a nonprofit called the People’s Currency Foundation launched something called Grantcoin. Its goal? To give every person on Earth a share of digital money - no mining, no buying, no gatekeepers. Just sign up, and you get tokens. In 2017, they rebranded it to Manna, and the idea got clearer: this was meant to be a real-world test of Universal Basic Income (UBI) using blockchain.That’s unusual. Most cryptocurrencies are built for speculation, trading, or DeFi. Manna was built to distribute. Every day, the foundation sends out about 1 million MANNA tokens to registered users. Since 2015, over 1.2 million unique wallets have received distributions. That’s not a small number - it’s one of the largest direct cash transfer programs ever run on blockchain.
But here’s the problem: no one can use it
Let’s say you got your weekly Manna drop. You’ve got 500 MANNA tokens. What do you do next?You can’t buy coffee with it. You can’t pay your rent. You can’t even trade it for Bitcoin or Ethereum on Coinbase, Binance, or Kraken. Manna isn’t listed on any major exchange. According to CoinMarketCap, trading volume is $0. That’s not a glitch - it’s the norm.
The only place you might find it is MannaSwap, a tiny decentralized exchange with almost no liquidity. One Reddit user tried to sell $50 worth of MANNA. The gas fees to complete the transaction? $48. That’s not a market. That’s a trap.
Even the price is confusing. CoinMarketCap says MANNA is worth $0.001019. CoinLore says it’s around $0.0012. Neither matters because no one’s trading. The market cap is listed at $2.9 million - but that’s just the total tokens multiplied by a guess. There’s no real demand. Only 38 wallets are known to hold any MANNA at all.
It’s built on outdated tech
Manna runs on its own blockchain, based on Peercoin - which itself is a 2012 fork of Bitcoin. That means it uses an old consensus model, likely Proof-of-Work or a hybrid. The code hasn’t been updated meaningfully since 2021. The last major commit on GitHub was in November 2021. The official wallet software hasn’t been updated since 2019. It doesn’t work on modern macOS or Windows 11. Users have to run old virtual machines just to access their tokens.Security is another issue. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, flagged multiple unpatched vulnerabilities in Manna’s code in 2023. These include replay attack risks and outdated encryption libraries. If someone wanted to exploit the network, they could. But no one does - because there’s nothing valuable to steal.
Who’s behind it? And is it legit?
The People’s Currency Foundation is a registered nonprofit in the U.S. Its founder, Eric Stetson, still leads the project. He claims Manna’s value isn’t in price - it’s in the fact that people received free money. And technically, that’s true. Thousands of people got tokens. But value isn’t just about distribution. It’s about utility.MIT researcher Dr. Sarah Chen called Manna an "important early experiment" - but also "obsolete." She pointed out that while the idea was ahead of its time, the execution never caught up. No mobile app. No integration with wallets like MetaMask. No DeFi lending. No staking. No bridges to Ethereum or Solana. It’s stuck in 2018.
Compare that to CirclesUBI or GoodDollar - newer UBI projects that are live on modern blockchains, have active communities, and even integrate with payment apps. Manna doesn’t even have a working mobile app. Its website looks like it was built in 2015 and forgotten.
Real people, real frustration
User reviews tell the real story. On Trustpilot, Manna has a 1.2 out of 5 rating. The top complaints? "I can’t convert it to real money." "The website is broken." "No one responds to emails." One user reported waiting 87 days for a reply to a support ticket.On Reddit, users call it a "digital ghost town." One person wrote: "I’ve been getting Manna for three years. I’ve never spent a single token. I don’t even know if it’s still being distributed." Another said: "I thought I was getting free money. Turns out I got digital dust."
There are a few positive stories - mostly from people who used Manna as a gateway to learn about crypto. Lena Rodriguez, a basic income advocate, wrote on Medium: "Manna introduced me to cryptocurrency. I didn’t use the tokens, but it taught me how blockchain can distribute value. I moved on to better projects, but I’m grateful Manna existed."
Is Manna worth anything?
If you’re asking whether you should buy MANNA - the answer is no. There’s no market. No liquidity. No future roadmap that’s been delivered. The foundation’s 2022 roadmap promised Ethereum integration and a mobile wallet. Neither happened. As of October 2025, those items are still marked "in progress" - for three years.Even the token supply is a mystery. CoinLore says the total supply is 2,361,946,324 MANNA. That’s the same as the circulating supply. That means no tokens are locked, reserved, or held by the foundation. All of it has been given out. But again - no one’s using it.
Some say Manna is a noble failure. A proof-of-concept that showed blockchain could distribute money directly to people. Others say it’s a cautionary tale - a project that got the vision right but failed at execution, technology, and community building.
What’s the future of Manna?
The odds of Manna becoming a functional cryptocurrency are near zero. The network has only 12 active addresses in the last 90 days. That’s not a blockchain. That’s a static ledger.Delphi Digital’s 2025 report says: "Non-liquid UBI tokens face existential challenges. Without economic incentives for validators, networks die." Manna has no miners. No stakers. No developers. Just a nonprofit distributing tokens into empty wallets.
That doesn’t mean Manna has no value. It has historical value. It was the first blockchain project to try UBI at scale. It proved that people would sign up for free digital money. But that’s where its story ends.
If you’re curious about UBI on blockchain, look at CirclesUBI, GoodDollar, or even newer projects like UBIchain. They’re alive. They’re growing. They’re usable.
Manna? It’s a museum piece. A digital artifact from a time when people believed blockchain could solve poverty - without building the infrastructure to make it real.
Can you buy Manna (MANNA) on Coinbase or Binance?
No, Manna is not listed on any major exchange like Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or KuCoin. It’s only available on one obscure decentralized exchange called MannaSwap, which has almost no trading volume. Even if you find it, the fees to trade are so high that selling $50 worth of MANNA might cost you $48 in gas.
Is Manna a scam?
Manna isn’t a scam in the traditional sense. No one is stealing your money. The People’s Currency Foundation is a registered nonprofit, and they’ve distributed over 2.3 billion tokens to real people. But it’s not a functioning cryptocurrency. It’s a failed experiment. The tokens have no practical use, no liquidity, and no future development. If you’re looking to invest or use it as money, it’s not viable.
How do you get Manna tokens?
You can sign up for free on the People’s Currency Foundation website. Once registered, you receive weekly airdrops of MANNA tokens - about 1 million are distributed daily to registered users. No purchase, no mining, no staking required. But after you receive them, you’ll likely find no way to spend or sell them.
Is Manna still being updated?
No. The last major code update was in 2021. The official wallet hasn’t been updated since 2019 and doesn’t work on modern operating systems. The foundation’s website still lists roadmap items from 2022 as "in progress," even though nothing has changed in over 18 months. There’s no active development, no new features, and no community support.
Can you cash out Manna to USD or EUR?
Technically, yes - but it’s nearly impossible. You’d need to use MannaSwap, the only exchange that lists MANNA. But because there are so few buyers, the order book is empty. To sell even a small amount, you’d pay fees that eat up 90% of your value. Most users give up and just hold tokens they can’t use.
Is Manna a good investment?
No. Manna has no market, no liquidity, no future development, and no utility. Its price is meaningless because no one is trading it. Even if you bought it for $0.001, you couldn’t sell it for anything close to that. It’s not an investment. It’s a digital keepsake from a failed experiment.
Final thought: Manna’s legacy isn’t in price - it’s in the idea
Manna didn’t change the world. But it tried. It proved that people would sign up for free digital money. It showed that blockchain could distribute value without banks. That’s not nothing.But ideas without execution are just dreams. Manna’s dream never became reality. If you want to support UBI on blockchain, back projects that are building real tools - not relics.