Mantra CEO to Burn Team Tokens to Win Community Trust
Mantra CEO John Mullin has announced plans to burn all of his team’s allocated tokens in an effort to regain the community’s trust following the abrupt collapse of the OM token on April 13.
“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,” Mullin posted to X on April 16.
According to an April 8 blog post, Mantra had allocated 300 million OM — about 16.88% of the total supply of nearly 1.78 billion — for the team and core contributors.
These tokens are currently locked and were scheduled for gradual release between April 2027 and October 2029.
At current market prices, the team's tokens are valued at approximately $236 million, with OM trading around $0.78.
Prior to the April 13 crash, their value stood near $1.89 billion, when the token fell from $6.30 to as low as $0.52, erasing over $5.5 billion in market capitalization, according to CoinGecko.
Many in the community expressed support for Mullin’s commitment, while others voiced concerns that eliminating the team’s token incentives could undermine long-term motivation.
“This would be a mistake. 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,” said Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner.
Mullin suggested that a decentralized vote might be used to decide whether the 300 million tokens should be burned.
Mullin has promised a post-mortem statement to clarify the events surrounding the crash and maintain transparency with the community.
In a conversation with Cointelegraph on April 14, Mullin outlined plans to utilize the $109 million Mantra Ecosystem Fund to potentially conduct token buybacks and burns aimed at stabilizing OM’s price.
Mullin and his team have firmly denied speculation that they control 90% of the OM supply, or that they were involved in insider trading or market manipulation.
Mantra maintains that the crash was caused by “reckless liquidations” and was not the result of any team actions.
Notably, crypto exchanges OKX and Binance recorded significant OM activity just prior to the token’s collapse.
Both platforms denied any wrongdoing, pointing instead to changes in OM’s tokenomics in October and extreme volatility that triggered widespread cross-exchange liquidations on April 13.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/mantra-ceo-to-burn-300-million-team-tokens
https://x.com/jp_mullin888/status/1912138867056279875
https://x.com/jp_mullin888/status/1912089490119860245
https://x.com/cryptomanran/status/1912186626702283246
https://www.mantrachain.io/resources/announcements/understanding-om
https://www.okx.com/help/announcement-on-the-price-volatility-of-mantra-om
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