Mantra Chain CEO calls for more decentralization after OM Token debacle

Mantra Chain CEO calls for more decentralization after OM Token debacle

In an update posted on Mantra Chain website, based on JP Mullin, CEO of Mantra Chain discussion with Henri Arsalian during Token 2049 on stage, offered an update on the OM Token debacle.

The blog post authored by Mullin notes that the focus is on decentralization. The team is accelerating their validator diversification efforts by winding down internal validators while adding more support partners. Mullin states, “By the end of Q2 2025, we’ll have reduced internal validators by half and onboarded 50 total external partner validators.”

The Tokenomics dashboard created after the price drop will continue to be live. Already Mullin had burned his 150 million staked OM Tokens to show his commitment to the projects and to the recovery while trying to rebuild trust.

MANTRA Chain continued to operate without interruption during the price drop, even with transaction volumes at all-time highs. Additionally, Mantra Chain has launched OMSTEAD, our MANTRA Chain EVM testnet currently in Alpha. ‍

Mullin also carried out a call to action when it comes to crypto exchanges. He states, ‍”This is bigger than MANTRA. Liquidation cascades could happen to any project in the crypto industry. Policies that allow aggressive leverage positions create substantial systemic risk. We’re cooperating with major exchanges to improve market stability, and we’re calling on the rest of our industry to provide input on how exchange policies can minimize (or continue to permit) policies that create risk to investors.”

He added that the path ahead requires methodical, transparent rebuilding. He states, “We’re designing systems that both significantly reduce the risk of similar incidents and also create a fundamentally more decentralized protocol and token.”

Mantra Chain had signed a $1 billion tokenization deal with DAMAC as well as a $500 million deal with MAG Group. Yet recently MAG Group announced a new tokenization of assets worth $3 billion with MultiBank mentioning the same properties that had been mentioned in their initial agreement with Mantra Chain.

Mantra Chain CEO to give full story on OM Token loss

Mantra Chain CEO to give full story on OM Token loss

The CEO and Founder of UAE regulated Mantra Chain John Patrick Mullin announced on LinkedIn ( 23 hours ago) that the event regarding the $OM Token severe losses at the beginning of this week, were a result of a massive forced liquidation of a very large OM holder’s position on a crypto exchange.

Since the incident the OM token has lost $5 billion in value, and stands at a market cap of $741 million.

He noted however that regardless of your scale of loss, all investors and community members are in his and his teams thoughts. He as such along with the leadership team are exploring buy back programs and a supply burn to restore investor confidence.

He added that within the next 24 hours, he will be making a public factual post mortem that will share all the details of what transpired in the early hours of Monday morning (APAC). He states, ” This analysis will be as accurate and factual as we can possibly make it. It will not contain opinions or spin. We believe the truth is on our side, and it is in everyone’s interest to make it known and shared as widely as possible. It’ll be shared on my account, along with our official channels.”

Later on in an X post he explained further with regards to burning of tokens. He stated, “To be 100% clear, I am stating that I am burning MY team tokens, and we will create a comprehensive burn program for other parts of the OM supply.”

Investors in Mantra, such as Shorooq and Laser Digital denied claims of token sale.

Laser Digital shows support for Mantra OM Token

Laser Digital shows support for Mantra OM Token

Laser Digital, a UAE regulated crypto broker and investment manager service provider, as well as an investor in Mantra Chain, the L1 Blockchain tokenization platform, has made a statement confirming their support for Mantra OM Token after its 90 percent fall in the past 48 hours.

Laser Digital noted that it had no involvement in the recent price collapse of $OM token. They stated, ” Assertions circulating on social media that link Laser to ‘investor selling’ are factually incorrect and misleading. 3/ On-chain movements of $OM linked to Laser wallets have been flagged publicly. We want to be absolutely clear: Laser has not deposited any $OM tokens to OKX. The wallets being referenced to OKX are not Laser wallets.”

The company emphasized that they are here to help grow the ecosystems they back. They stated, ” We remain fully aligned with our counterparties, and our core $OM investment remains locked. We have zero interest in putting pressure on the token or destabilizing the project. Transparency matters. We’re proud to support innovation and responsible growth in crypto markets — and that means showing up with facts when confusion and inaccurate information arises.”

This comes after Shorooq also made a similar claim with regards to Mantra Chain and its token.

UAE Shorooq partners issues statement on Mantra OM Token

UAE Shorooq partners issues statement on Mantra OM Token

UAE Shorooq partners, one of the major equity and token investors in MantraChain, the Layer 1 Blockchain for tokenization, whose token OM has lost more than 90% of its value in the past 24 hours, has made a statement noting that Shorooq and Mantra management and team members have not sold OM Tokens either in the lead up to, or during this crash.

They noted, ” The past 24 hours have been challenging for everyone involved with MANTRA, and as one of the key investors in the project, we feel it’s essential to provide you with the facts as we know them, and outline where we stand. It is important to note up front that Shorooq (its funds and founding partners) and MANTRA (management and team members), have not sold OM tokens in the lead up to, or during, this crash.”‍


The statement explains that through on-chain analysis and internal discussions, they confidently confirm that no exploit or malicious act occurred. Most of Shorooq tokens remain locked in accordance with the vesting schedule. Any rumors suggesting investor-led selling (including Shorooq or others) are patently false.

As per their explanation, the root cause of the crash was a forced liquidation of large leveraged positions that utilized the OM token as collateral. These positions were unwound abruptly by the exchange, triggering a cascade of sell-offs across the market, which ultimately resulted in the drastic price drop.

The MANTRA team is currently investigating the cause, and will be publishing detailed post mortem.

Shorooq finally notes in its statement that it will continue to back MANTRA because they believe in their vision to bring real world assets on chain. The statement says, ” Our support for MANTRA has always been grounded in the project’s technology, team, and value proposition, rather than short-term fluctuations in token price.”
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Who is the culprit in Mantra Chain OM token loss

Who is the culprit in Mantra Chain OM token loss

Mantra Chain, the Layer one tokenization platform, regulated in the UAE by Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority, has shed almost $10 billion dollars in less than 24 hours on April 13th 2025. The OM token price dropped from around $6 dollars to 0.37 in a matter of hours.

The incident reminded many of FTX, Luna, and other failed projects that were either ponzy scams or worse, but until now there are many sides to the story and many fingers assigning blame and culprit status.

So what has happened?

The Mantra Chain side of story

John Patrick Mullin, the CEO and Co-Founder of Mantra was quick to make a statement on X and LinkedIn what happened. He noted that they had determined that the $OM Token market movements were triggered by reckless force closures initiated by centralized exchanges on OM account holders.

He stated, “The timing and depth of the crash suggest that a very sudden closure of account positions was initiated without sufficient warning or notice. That this happened during low-liquidity hours on a Sunday evening UTC (early morning Asia time) points to a degree of negligence at best, or possibly intentional market positioning taken by centralized exchanges.”

He noted that Centralized exchange partners play an important role in providing liquidity to projects like ours. He explained, “We work closely with them; however they continue to exercise enormously high levels of discretion. When discretionary powers are exercised without due internal and external oversight, dislocations like what recently happened can and will occur, hurting both projects and investors alike.”

He was adamant that the dislocation was not caused by the team, or Mantra Association, or advisors or investors. He explained, “Tokens remain locked and subject to the published vesting periods. OM’s Tokenomics remain intact, as shared last week in our latest token report. Our token wallet addresses are online and visible.”

He added that in the coming hours there will be a community meeting on X to discuss the events.

Crypto exchanges side of story

The Founder and CEO of OKX sees it quite differently, on X he noted, “ It’s a big scandal to the whole crypto industry. All of the onchain unlock and deposit data is public, all major exchanges’ collateral and liquidation data can be investigated. OKX will make all of the reports ready!”

He also shared a post which noted that before the $OM token crash, 17 wallets deposited $277 million ( 43.6 million $OM) to exchanges, which is 4.5% of circulating supply. Two of those wallets are linked to Laser Digital an investor and partner of Mantra Chain.

In March 2024 MANTRA Chain raised $11 million led by UAE based Shorooq Partners with investors including Three-point capital, Forte Securities, VirtuZone, Hex Trust and GameFi Ventures

While it seems the CEO of Mantra Chain mostly blames Binance. Binance issued a statement stating that the $OM Token had experienced price volatilities and their initial findings indicate that the development are a result of cross-exchange liquidations. Since October 2024 Binance had implemented various risk control measures including reducing leverage levels with regards to $OM Token.

Additionally, since January 2025, Binance introduced a pop-up warning on the OM spot trading page to inform users of major changes in the token’s Tokenomics, particularly a significant increase in supply. That warning has now been updated to emphasize that OM’s price is subject to very high volatility.

The Community take on the Story

Being_maximus expressed what he believes is the community take on the events with $OM Token, he explained that the community believes this could be linked to a team Shake-Up: Rumors of key “Kabal team” resignations rocked investor confidence, triggering panic selling,  Tokenomics Concerns, allegations surfaced that the team controls up to 90% of the token supply, raising fears of insider selling and manipulation. A proposal for supply inflation only added fuel to the fire, and Airdrop Discontent: Community members (“Omies”) expressed frustration over poor airdrop allocations and vesting terms. OTC sales by insiders may have worsened the sell pressure.

Investors have reached out to Mantra Chain and Binance, with one stating on X “I invested $3,500,000 into your RWA token, $OM. That investment is now worth barely $200,000, a drop of over 90%. My intention was to support the future of RWAs. I conducted thorough due diligence, and the supposed partnership with a leading UAE property company was a key factor in my investment decision — a claim that gave the illusion of credibility and legitimacy.”

He added that it is clear that these funds were funneled into the pockets of the Binance and $OM Teams. As he stated,, “It’s now clear that those funds were funneled into the pockets of the Binance and $OM teams in what looks like a well orchestrated liquidity exit. Had I known that my investment would be used to subsidize insiders instead of advancing the RWA ecosystem, I never would’ve engaged with this project. If this situation is not acknowledged and addressed appropriately, I will have no choice but to escalate this through formal legal channels. My crypto legal representatives at Burwick Law will be in touch.”

The Dubai Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority take

The most important take will be that of the UAE regulator VARA given that Mantra Chain is regulated in the UAE. Lara on the Block reached out, and was advised that no comments could be made at this time as investigations are ongoing.

The whole situation reminds us of a recent spat that took place in the UAE, a few weeks back between UAE based Dohrnii Labs, and Blynex crypto exchange.

But it could also be a reminder to the sagas of FTX, when VARA had to suspend its license.

UAE based Mantra Token is on the rise despite bearish conditions

UAE based Mantra Token is on the rise despite bearish conditions

The Mantra Layer 1 blockchain network dedicated to the issuance, trading, and secure management of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) has seen a significant rise in the price of its token despite bearish crypto conditions in the past week.

Mantra token is currently listed on 36 exchanges including Binance, Bybit, Gateio, Bitget, OKX, Kucoin and others.

The journey of Mantra has been a promising one. It not only raised $11 million led by UAE based Shorooq Partners with investors including Three-point capital, Forte Securities, VirtuZone, Hex Trust and GameFi Ventures, but it also became the first VASP to receive first DeFi license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulator Authority (VARA).

The core aim of Mantra is to position itself at the forefront of the rapidly evolving RWA sector in Middle East and Asia.

MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin stated, “Our vision is to spearhead the tokenization of Real-World Assets and set a global standard for security, compliance, and innovation. This will create a sustainable ecosystem for developers and institutions. By securing our foothold in strategic, crypto-friendly markets like Asia and the UAE, we’re not just navigating the future but actively building it. MANTRA will bridge the longstanding divide between traditional financial systems and the blockchain space, democratizing access to wealth and opportunity on a scale never seen before.”

It has already started with an agreement with UAE DAMAC group to tokenized $1 billion worth of assets. Soon afterwards launched RWAccelerator – a start-up accelerator program designed to empower builders and startups with investment capital, mentors, dedicated AI support supported by Google Cloud.

Already Bitget Wallet, a Web3 non-custodial wallet, is now fully supporting the UAE based Mantra Mainnet, a Layer 1 blockchain focused on the tokenization of real-world assets (RWA), UAE Tungsten Custody Solutions Ltd, also announced its support for UAE MANTRA (OM) Blockchain with its custodial services. While Ledger, crypto wallet hardware provider, joined UAE based Mantra Layer1 Blockchain as one of the validators.

As such it is no surprise that the native token of Mantra, OM, is on the rise and is currently trading at $8.04, reflecting an 8% increase in less than two weeks. Even today while the crypto ecosystem is taking a hit, Mantra’s price has not budged at$8.46, with a 24-hour trading volume of $340.03 M. OM is +0.00% in the last 24 hours. The OM token has a circulating supply of 973.65 M OM.