Mantra CEO to burn his tokens as OM plummets 88% – A bold trust move?
A move to $0.72 was likely in the short-term, and Sunday's selling scrambled the previously healthy-looking uptrend.
- Mantra’s founder and CEO pledged to burn the team’s supply of 300 million OM.
- The crash on the 13th of April eroded the structure and the confidence of the community — rebuilding will take a while.
After Mantra [OM] saw a 90% crash on the 13th of April, CEO John Mullin maintained that “forced liquidations” on centralized exchanges were to blame for this drop.
Lookonchain flagged some early OM investors as linked to the dumping wallets, but Mullin denied these claims.
More recently, the founder announced he was planning to burn the team’s tokens. In a post on X on the 16th of April, he wrote,
“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.”
There were 300 million OM, or 16.88% of the circulating supply, set aside for the team and its core contributors. Before the 90% price drop, these tokens were worth around $1.9 billion.
At press time, their worth was around $234 million. These tokens are locked and scheduled to be released in stages between April 2027 and October 2029.
Some community members welcomed this move and suggested it should be put to a decentralized vote.
Others, such as Crypto Banter founder Ran Neuner, observed that this move could jeopardize the team’s motivation in the long term.
What do the price charts say?
In short, nothing good. A 90% wipeout makes technical analysis difficult, as it erases the trend that has been building in recent months.
The rally from November was erased in a day, and the 27.2% extension level below the November low was tested. A drop below $0.364 appeared possible.
The 3-day liquidation heatmap showed that there was a build-up of liquidity at $1, just above current market prices. OM would have to climb another 30% to test this liquidity region.
The 24-hour heatmap highlighted the $0.72 and $0.82 as the nearby liquidation clusters. It was likely to test one, then sweep the other.
The order of this move was unclear, but the $0.82 was closer and hence more likely to be tested first.
Whether Mantra can recover from Sunday’s plunge remains to be seen. The community was shaken, but there is a chance that RWA investors would see this as an opportunity. DYOR is extremely important.
Sunday saw $5 billion in market cap wiped from Mantra, which brings into question whether this RWA ecosystem is worth that much, or whether a good chunk of it was vapor.
Investors might want to wait instead of FOMO buying.
Disclaimer: The information presented does not constitute financial, investment, trading, or other types of advice and is solely the writer’s opinion
