Mantra (OM) negotiates the burn of up to 300M tokens

Mantra (OM) is negotiating to burn a total of 300M tokens, starting with 150M of the allocation of John Mullin, the project’s founder. The token burn will also change the staking reward ratio. 

Mantra (OM) will attempt to rescue its token with a burn. The allocation of the project’s founder, John Mullin, is already being unstaked in preparation for burning the first 300M OM. Mullin announced the burn would be the first step in rebuilding trust with the Mantra community. 

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

Mullin already took it upon himself to burn his initial OM allocation with a public commitment to the OM community. Mullin’s allocation is part of the team and core contributor share, which was staked back in October 2024. The unstaking of Mullin’s tokens will wait until April 29, after which the tokens will be sent to a burn address. 

The unstaking was announced ahead of time to avoid further panic of unlocks. The next real unlock for OM will arrive on April 23, adding 6.92M tokens to the market. 

The Mantra team is also in talks with other ecosystem participants, who may agree to burn an additional 150M OM. For now, there is no set deadline for the additional burn agreement. The tokens did not affect the market until now, as the selling originated from the unlocked stakes of early Mantra partners. 

Mantra decided on the burn as a way to offset the recent token crash, which erased up to 92% of the value of OM at one point. The event was seen as a one-off panic with outsized impact, though initially, it was considered a large-scale rug pull, with a loss of up to $6B.

Mantra burn will change staking APY 

The OM burn will initially decrease the total supply of tokens to 1.67B. Staked tokens will fall from 571.8M to 421.8M. This will decrease the bonded token ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%, leading to a higher APY for any remaining staked tokens. 

The higher APY may lead to more staking, which will remove OM from circulation. The biggest effect for OM, however, is expected to be the initial burn. 

OM is now closely watched for signs of a rebound. The token traded at around $0.58, recovering from lows of $0.50. Days after the crash, OM is showing no signs of a strong rally, as traders are still extremely cautious. 

Open interest for OM is still low at $83M, with just 35% short sellers due to the risk of short-term rallies. The token still achieved over $500M in daily trading volumes due to legacy listings. OM is also used as a risky bet for a breakout and recovery to $1. 

The crash of OM arrived just as RWA tokens were recovering as a whole. The sector increased its total valuation to over $36.6B, driven by LINK, XLM, and ONDO. OM was an outlier among RWA tokens, sparking skepticism about its fair value.