On April 12, 2025, MANTRA’s $OM token experienced a steep and rapid decline - dropping more than 90% within hours. The event erased billions in paper value and triggered immediate concerns across the ecosystem.
According to MANTRA co-founder John Patrick Mullin, the collapse was the result of mass forced liquidations on a centralized exchange during low-liquidity weekend trading. The exchange in question has not been publicly identified.
The crash was not tied to a smart contract exploit or rug pull, and both the MANTRA team and its institutional investors have denied any involvement in selling. In fact, on-chain data has shown that team wallets remain locked and publicly labeled, and several investors - including Shorooq Partners and Laser Digital—have made public statements confirming they were not responsible for the sell-off.
Addressing Token Supply and Structure
One area of concern post-crash was $OM’s token structure. In early 2024, a DAO-approved vote merged the legacy Ethereum-based OM token with the new MANTRA mainnet token via a one-to-one burn-and-mint mechanism. Critics have since questioned whether the supply merge contributed to a lack of clarity in circulating supply, especially across multiple chains.
The team has defended the structure, citing a long-standing public record of the supply plan, and pointed to the need for stronger transparency tooling to help the community track these dynamics in real time.
A 300 Million OM Burn and Buyback Plans
In the days following the crash, MANTRA announced a strategic supply reduction initiative. Mantra Founder and CEO JP Mullin committed to burning his 150 million OM team allocation, which had been staked at mainnet launch. Once the unbonding period ends on April 29, the tokens will be permanently sent to a public burn address.
In parallel, MANTRA is also working with ecosystem partners to coordinate a second 150 million OM burn, which would bring the total burned supply to 300 million OM - approximately 16% of total supply.
This reduction would lower OM’s total supply from 1.82 billion to 1.52 billion, and reduce staked supply from 571.8 million to 421.8 million OM, increasing staking APR and lowering the network’s bonded ratio.
New Transparency Measures: The OM Dashboard
In a further effort to restore confidence, the team launched a real-time OM Dashboard, available at om.mantrachain.io. The dashboard includes:
Live token supply across both MANTRA mainnet and EVM
Linked treasury and operational wallets
Historical allocation data and onchain tracking
Verifiable burn address and transaction details
This is part of a broader effort to make onchain activity around $OM easier to follow, with additional dashboard features expected in future updates.
What Comes Next
MANTRA committed to releasing a full post-mortem of the incident, as well as implementing new communication standards to improve coordination with centralized exchanges. The focus now shifts to execution: delivering on burn promises, rolling out governance, and continuing to push forward with real-world asset (RWA) integrations, which remain the project’s core thesis.
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