TLDR
- Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin has begun unstaking 150 million OM tokens to burn them by April 29
- This burn follows OM’s 90% price crash on April 13, reportedly triggered by a $40M token deposit into OKX
- After this burn, Mantra’s total supply will decrease to 1.67 billion and staked tokens will drop by over 26%
- Mantra is in talks with ecosystem partners to burn another 150 million OM tokens
- The burn will reduce the bonded ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%, increasing staking APR for token holders
Mantra founder and CEO John Patrick Mullin has begun the process of burning 150 million of his OM tokens in an effort to restore value to the cryptocurrency after its price collapsed by 90% earlier this month. The token unstaking process started on April 21 and will be completed by April 29, when the tokens will be permanently removed from circulation.
The decision to burn tokens comes after OM experienced a flash crash on April 13, when its price plummeted from $6.30 to below $0.55 within hours. The crash was reportedly triggered by a $40 million token deposit into cryptocurrency exchange OKX from a wallet allegedly linked to the team, which sparked fears of insider selling.
Rebuilding Trust Through Token Burns
“This is a first step in rebuilding trust with the community, but far from the last,” Mullin stated regarding the token burn. The tokens being burned were originally staked during Mantra Chain’s mainnet launch in October 2024 to help secure the network.
This is a first step in rebuilding trust with the community, but far from the last. We will share more in the coming days about our plans to ensure alignment going forward. 🫡🕉️ https://t.co/685jVsJNBA
— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) April 21, 2025
Transaction hashes for the unstaking process have been publicly shared to allow for verification of the burn. Once completed, the tokens will be sent to the burn address “mantra1qqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqqcg2my8,” making them permanently inaccessible.
Mantra has also announced it is in discussions with “key ecosystem partners” about burning an additional 150 million OM tokens. If successful, this would bring the total burn amount to 300 million tokens and reduce the total supply from 1.82 billion to 1.52 billion OM.
The burn will have direct effects on the network’s economics. With 150 million fewer OM tokens, Mantra’s staked tokens will decrease from 571.8 million to 421.8 million OM, representing a drop of over 26% in staked tokens.
Improved Staking Rewards
One benefit for current token holders is that the burn will lower the bonded ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%. This change will result in higher staking rewards, as annual percentage rates (APRs) for stakers will increase.
The decision to burn tokens was not made in isolation. Two days after the price collapse, Mullin posted on social media platform X that he intended to burn all of the staked tokens he was allocated at the blockchain’s mainnet genesis. These team tokens were originally scheduled to be unlocked starting in 2027.
Mullin also conducted a poll on X about the proposed burn, offering alternatives such as extended vesting or unlocking tokens at specific milestones. This poll attracted nearly 9,000 votes, though some commenters criticized it as an attempt to reverse course on the burn commitment.
Over the past few days after stating I’ll burn all my teams tokens, I had a lot of feed back from community, investors, etc.
The whole point is that this is meant to be for the community, so would be good to get a temperature check of people’s thoughts how to implement this.
— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) April 18, 2025
The token burn is part of a broader “OM Token support plan” announced following the price crash. This plan also features a token buyback program, which Mullin says is “well underway.”
In addition to the token burn and buyback initiatives, Mantra has released a tokenomics dashboard aimed at increasing transparency as it seeks to regain community trust.
Despite these efforts, OM’s price remains down around 90% from its value earlier in April, trading at below $0.55 at the time of writing.
The flash crash that prompted these actions occurred on April 13, when panic spread quickly as rumors of undisclosed over-the-counter deals, delayed airdrops, and excessive token supply concentration fueled mass liquidations across exchanges.
Mantra has stated that once the final burn transaction is confirmed onchain, a complete verification report will be released to the public.
The move reflects growing trends among tokenized projects seeking to build credibility through transparent and deflationary supply mechanics. By reducing token supply, Mantra hopes to create scarcity that may help support the token’s price over time.
For now, the crypto community watches closely to see if these measures will be enough to restore confidence in the project and stabilize the price of OM tokens.
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