Mantra Attempts to Save OM by Burning Tokens: Founder Promises to Halve Supply, but Investor Confidence Remains Unrecovered

RWA (Real-World Asset Tokenization) platform Mantra is taking aggressive steps to address the token crisis. The project plans to burn 300 million OM tokens, worth approximately $1.6 billion, with founder Джон Патрик Маллин contributing 150 million (about $80 million). This is a significant move by Mantra after a catastrophic price plunge, aiming to boost staking rewards by reducing circulating supply and restore market confidence.

Major Commitment from Founders and Ecosystem Partners

Mantra’s announced burn plan includes two parts. The confirmed portion is 150 million OM tokens directly allocated from founder Джон Патрик Маллин’s team—these tokens were distributed at the network’s initial launch in October 2024. The other part comes from “ecosystem partners,” with details yet to be disclosed.

Burning these 300 million OM tokens will lower the locked percentage of total supply from 31.47% to 25.30%. Since these tokens need to go through an unlocking process first, the entire burn is expected to be completed by the end of the month, with tokens transferred to a network burn address. The Mantra team stated that “the process of extracting 150 million tokens from the ‘Team’ and ‘CORE Participants’ sections has officially begun.”

Liquidity Storm Behind a 90% Crash

This bold move stems from a shocking event in mid-April 2025. OM tokens plummeted 90% within hours, destroying over $5 billion in market cap. The Mantra team attributed the disaster to “ruthless exchange liquidations,” implying some investors were forcibly liquidated amid market chaos.

The crash inflicted deep wounds on the market. Although Mantra later announced a token burn plan to stabilize the situation, investor confidence did not immediately recover. Within 24 hours of the announcement, OM price continued to fall by 3.3%, reflecting market caution—good news like token burns couldn’t stop the downward trend.

Mantra’s RWA Ambitions and DAMAC Strategic Partnership

To understand why Mantra is noteworthy, it’s essential to grasp its core business model. The platform focuses on tokenizing real-world assets (RWA), allowing users to convert physical assets like real estate and commodities into digital tokens, enabling digital investment in tangible assets. OM tokens serve as the medium for trading and governance within the ecosystem.

In January 2025, Mantra formed a strategic partnership with Middle Eastern real estate giant DAMAC Group, planning to tokenize $1 billion worth of assets, including properties, hotel operations, and data centers. This deal once provided strong support for OM’s price and showcased the huge potential of the real-world asset tokenization sector.

Market Rollercoaster and Confidence Crisis

OM performed remarkably in 2024, with over 400% growth for the year, making it one of the crypto market’s stars. Such gains were achieved with relatively little discussion on social media, indicating strong interest from institutional investors and professional traders. However, from its peak to the 90% crash in April, investors suffered a dreamlike loss.

The token burn announcement should have been positive—reducing supply and increasing staking rewards typically attract new participants. Yet, OM continued to decline, showing that market trust in Mantra had already been shaken. Investors no longer believed that simple mechanism tweaks could restore lost confidence; they cared more about the project’s long-term sustainability and risk management.

Outlook and Reflection

Mantra’s crisis highlights the fragility of emerging crypto projects. Even with star-level partnerships like DAMAC and clear use cases such as RWA tokenization, projects can still collapse under liquidity shocks and market panic. The founder’s token burn pledge demonstrates sincerity, but whether it can truly rebuild investor trust remains to be seen—time and market performance are needed to verify that. Mantra’s current challenge is not just technical or economic but also about how to re-establish its value amid chaos.