Mantra CEO says team is finalizing burn program details, buyback is well underway

Share this article

John Patrick Mullin, Mantra’s co-founder and CEO, has stated that the team is finalizing its token burn program and actively working on a buyback plan. Both efforts come in the wake of the OM token’s recent collapse.

“The burn program details are in the final stages, and will be shared in the near future. Buyback program also well underway. We are working around the clock for the Sherpas/OMies,” Mullin wrote on X on Friday.

OM, the native token of the MANTRA ecosystem, saw a steep price decline on April 13, plummeting over 90% to $0.37 in a matter of hours.

Following the large-scale liquidation that wiped out around $5 billion in OM’s market value, OM recovered to above $1 but again retraced. The token surged as much as 14% on Friday after Mullin’s latest update.

Ever since the incident, the project team has repeatedly asserted that they did not make any OM sales during the token’s sudden collapse.

In some of his early statements post-event, Mullin claimed reckless forced liquidations on centralized exchanges triggered the 90% drop in the OM token’s value.

In an official statement released on April 16, Mantra’s internal investigation confirmed forced liquidation of OM collateral during low-volume trading hours as the main cause.

All OM team allocations remain locked, and most market activity involves legacy ERC-20 tokens in public circulation, according to the team.

In a bid to rewin community trust, Mantra plans to launch a buyback and burn program, release a live tokenomics dashboard, and work with exchanges to provide more transparency.

Mullin has also publicly committed to burning his personal token allocation as part of the recovery effort.

The teams token allocation are actually vesting only starting in 2027, which is 30 months from mainnet launch (Oct. 24).

I’m planning to burn all of my team tokens and when we turn it around the community and investors can decide if I have earned it back. 🫡🕉️ https://t.co/ZQR1H5xAqF

— JP Mullin (🕉, 🏘️) (@jp_mullin888) April 15, 2025

Mullin has also suggested a decentralized vote to decide on the burning of 300 million team tokens in response to some concerns about the burning program’s impact on long-term team motivation.

Mantra allocated 300 million OM tokens, nearly 17% of its supply, to the team and core contributors. Locked until staged releases between April 2027 and October 2029, the stash is now valued at over $200 million, down from around $1.8 billion before the recent price crash.

At the time of writing, OM traded at $0.68, down approximately 88% from its pre-collapse point of $6, according to CoinGecko data.

Share this article