Mantra CEO John Mullin plans to burn all of his team’s tokens to recover the trust of the community after OM’s crash on April 13. The token plummeted from $6.30 to $0.50 and wiped out more than $6 billion in value. His action seems to have brought back confidence, as OM has risen by 26% in the last 24 hours to $0.7791 with a trading volume of $1.45 billion.
In a post on X, Mullin said, “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.”
The team holds 300 million OM tokens, around 16.88% of the total supply, worth roughly $236 million at current prices. These tokens were locked and were scheduled for release between April 2027 and October 2029.
While many praised Mullin’s move, others warned it might hurt long-term team motivation. Ran Neuner, founder of Crypto Banter, said, “We want teams that are highly incentivized. Burning the incentive may seem like a good gesture but it will hurt the team motivation long term.”
He then specified that only his team’s tokens will be burned. When asked about if other team members will join the burning, he replied, ignoring the question, “I can not make any statements about what this will do to the value of OM, but we are doing this to show alignment and long-term support to OM & MANTRA, and instill trust in the market.”
Despite concerns, the plan seems to have sparked renewed investor interest. As of now, Mantra’s OM token is trading at $0.7579, up 23.20% in the last 24 hours, with a massive $1.43 billion in trading volume. Its market cap has risen to $734.8 million, according to CoinMarketCap data.
Mullin hinted that a decentralized vote could decide the fate of the tokens. He also promised a detailed postmortem to explain what went wrong.
He denied rumors of insider trading and confirmed that the team doesn’t control 90% of the OM supply. The crash, he said, was due to reckless liquidations, not team actions.
Mantra is now working on a recovery plan, including using its $109 million Ecosystem Fund for token buybacks and burns to stabilize OM’s price.
Also Read: Mantra TVL Jumps 500% As Investors Rush To Buy & Stake OM Tokens
