What is Manna (MANNA) Crypto Coin? The UBI Experiment That Stalled

When you hear about a cryptocurrency that gives free money to everyone on Earth, it sounds like science fiction. But Manna (MANNA) isn’t a joke - it’s a real project that launched in 2015 with a bold promise: Manna is designed to be a digital basic income, distributed equally to every person who signs up. No mining. No buying. Just free tokens, sent weekly, to anyone with an email. Sounds great, right? The problem is, you can’t spend them. You can’t sell them. And most people who’ve received them have no idea what to do next.

The Idea Behind Manna

Manna was created by Eric Stetson and his nonprofit, the People’s Currency Foundation. It started as Grantcoin in 2015, then rebranded to Manna in 2017. The goal was simple: use blockchain to give everyone a basic income. Not as a charity. Not as a loan. As a right. Every registered user gets about 1 million MANNA tokens distributed daily across all wallets - roughly 100-500 tokens per person per week, depending on how many people are signed up.

It’s the first digital currency ever built by a tax-exempt nonprofit specifically to distribute UBI. That’s not just unusual - it’s unique. Most crypto projects want you to buy in, mine, or stake. Manna wants you to sign up and wait for the free drop. No barriers. No gatekeepers. Just a website and an email.

How Manna Works (Technically)

Manna runs on its own blockchain, based on Peercoin - an older, less secure fork of Bitcoin. It originally used SHA-256 mining like Bitcoin, but now appears to use a mix of Proof-of-Work and Proof-of-Stake. The total supply is fixed at 2,361,946,324 MANNA tokens. That’s it. No more will ever be created.

Unlike Ethereum-based tokens like USDT or LINK, Manna doesn’t rely on anyone else’s network. It has its own ledger. You can check transactions on its blockchain explorer using the contract address 0xf3b9...E5cB7E. But here’s the catch: almost no one uses it.

The official wallet software hasn’t been updated since 2019. It doesn’t run on modern Macs or Windows 11. If you want to access your tokens, you have to install an old operating system inside a virtual machine. Most people give up before they even get started.

The Market Reality: $0 Trading Volume

Manna’s biggest problem isn’t technology - it’s liquidity. As of October 2025, CoinMarketCap reports $0 in 24-hour trading volume. That means no one is buying or selling MANNA on any exchange. CoinLore says the market cap is $2.9 million, but that’s based on a price of $0.0012 - a number no one is actually paying.

There’s only one decentralized exchange where MANNA is listed: MannaSwap. And even there, the order book is so thin that trading $50 worth of MANNA costs $48 in gas fees. One Reddit user summed it up: “I’ve had Manna for two years. I tried to sell it. The fees were higher than the value. I just left it there.”

Only 38 wallets are known to hold any MANNA. That’s not a community. That’s a ghost town.

Why Nobody Uses Manna

Manna’s design is philosophically noble but practically broken. Here’s why:

• No exchange listings - Not on Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, or any major platform.
• Outdated wallet - The official software is incompatible with modern devices.
• No merchant acceptance - No online store, app, or service accepts MANNA as payment.
• Zero developer activity - The last code commit on GitHub was in November 2021. Documentation hasn’t changed since 2020.
• Slow support - Users report waiting up to 87 days for a reply from the foundation’s contact form.

Even the foundation’s own roadmap - published in 2022 - promised mobile wallets and Ethereum integration. As of October 2025, both are still listed as “in progress.”

Expert Opinions: Obsolete or Revolutionary?

There’s a split in how experts see Manna.

Dr. Sarah Chen from MIT’s Digital Currency Initiative called it “an important early experiment, but technically obsolete.” She points out that Manna’s code has unpatched security flaws from 2017 - including replay attack risks - that would require a full rewrite to fix. CertiK, a blockchain security firm, gave the same warning in 2023.

Eric Stetson, the founder, disagrees. He says Manna’s value isn’t in price or trading volume. It’s in the 1.2 million unique wallets that have received tokens since 2015. “We built the first global digital basic income network,” he told CryptoSlate in August 2024.

But here’s the problem: if no one can use the tokens, does the network even exist?

Messari, a leading crypto research firm, excluded Manna from its 2025 Digital Asset Classification Framework because it “lacks sufficient on-chain activity to qualify as a functional cryptocurrency.”

Real User Experiences

Most people who’ve tried Manna don’t stick around.

On Trustpilot, it has a 1.2 out of 5 rating. The top complaints? “Can’t convert to real money” and “Website is broken.” One user wrote: “I got 200 MANNA last week. I spent an hour trying to cash out. Gave up. Now I just ignore it.”

There are a few exceptions. Lena Rodriguez, a basic income advocate, wrote on Medium that Manna was her “on-ramp to crypto.” She never used the tokens, but the weekly email updates taught her how blockchain works. She later moved to CirclesUBI, a more functional UBI project.

How Manna Compares to Other UBI Cryptocurrencies

Manna isn’t the only UBI crypto. But it’s the only one that’s practically dead.

• CirclesUBI - Runs on Gnosis Chain. $42 million market cap. $1.2 million daily volume. Works with wallets like MetaMask. Used in real communities.
• GoodDollar - Also on Ethereum. $18 million market cap. Active DeFi integrations. Used in pilot programs in Israel and India.
• Manna - $2.9 million market cap. $0 volume. No wallet support. No exchange. No updates.

Circles and GoodDollar are growing. Manna is frozen in time.

Is Manna a Security?

The SEC hasn’t ruled on Manna specifically. But its 2024 Howey Test framework says that if a project raises funds or distributes value through a centralized entity - and investors expect profit - it may be a security.

Manna’s foundation controls all distribution. It decides who gets tokens. It controls the wallet software. It’s not decentralized. That puts it in legal gray territory. If regulators ever act, Manna could be classified as an unregistered security - meaning the foundation could face penalties.

Should You Get Manna?

If you’re curious about UBI, Manna is a fascinating case study. It’s the first real attempt to give free crypto to everyone. That’s worth remembering.

But if you want to use cryptocurrency as money - to buy things, send it to friends, or trade it - Manna is useless. The tokens have no practical value. The infrastructure is broken. The community is gone.

The People’s Currency Foundation still sends out weekly emails. If you sign up, you’ll get tokens. But you’ll also get a digital ghost. A relic from 2017 that the world moved past long ago.

Final Thoughts

Manna isn’t a failure because it didn’t make people rich. It’s a failure because it didn’t make people free.

A basic income only works if you can actually use the money. Manna gave people tokens - but no way to turn them into food, rent, or medicine. It’s a beautiful idea trapped in broken technology.

If you’re looking to explore UBI crypto, try CirclesUBI or GoodDollar. They’re alive. They work. They’re growing.

Manna? It’s a museum piece. Interesting to look at. But don’t expect to use it.