tl;dr
MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin has initiated the burn of his entire 150 million OM token allocation to increase transparency and rebuild community trust. The burn involves unstaking tokens originally secured during MANTRA Chain’s mainnet launch and sending them to a burn address, reducing total OM s...
MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin has initiated a significant token burn, permanently removing 150 million OM tokens from circulation to bolster transparency and restore trust within the community. This burn represents Mullin’s entire personal allocation and stems from tokens originally staked during MANTRA Chain’s mainnet launch in October 2024. The unstaking process is underway and expected to complete by April 29, 2025, after which the tokens will be sent to a designated burn address, effectively reducing the total supply by 150 million OM tokens.
In addition to this initial burn, MANTRA plans a second burn of another 150 million OM tokens. If executed, the total burn would reach 300 million tokens, shrinking the overall supply from 1.82 billion to 1.52 billion OM. This reduction aims to influence the tokenomics by decreasing the number of bonded (staked) tokens from 571.8 million to 421.8 million, dropping the bonded ratio from 31.47% to 25.30%. Consequently, stakers may see increased annual percentage rates (APRs), enhancing incentives for network participation.
The token burn follows a volatile period marked by a dramatic 90% price crash on April 13, triggered by a $40 million token deposit on OKX, reportedly from a wallet linked to the MANTRA team. This incident fueled community fears of insider selling, delayed airdrops, and excessive token supply concentration, causing panic and widespread liquidations. Mullin’s decision to burn tokens serves as a strategic response to these events, aiming to reassure investors through transparent, onchain verifications and alignment with broader industry trends favoring deflationary mechanisms.
Despite the burn announcement and ongoing transparency efforts, OM’s market price remains highly volatile and continues to trade more than 90% below previous levels, highlighting the challenges of regaining investor confidence in a turbulent crypto environment.