MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin announced company-wide restructuring and staff reductions Wednesday, citing an unsustainable cost structure following the project's April 2025 token crash and prolonged market challenges.
The real-world asset tokenization platform will reduce headcount across business development, marketing, HR, and support functions as part of what Mullin described as a shift toward capital efficiency and focused execution.
The OM token currently trades 99% below its peak, with the platform's total value locked declining to $864,857 from a February 2025 high of $4.51 million.
The April 2025 Token Crash
MANTRA's OM token crashed approximately 90% on April 13, 2025, dropping from over $6 to under $0.50 within hours and erasing more than $6 billion in market capitalization.
The company attributed the crash to "reckless forced liquidations" by centralized exchanges during low-liquidity trading hours, though the event sparked widespread speculation about insider selling and token concentration issues.
Mullin referenced these events Wednesday as "incredibly unfortunate and frankly unfair," acknowledging they combined with increased competition and shifting market dynamics to render the company's cost structure unsustainable.
Recovery Efforts and Current Position
MANTRA subsequently burned 300 million OM tokens, including 150 million from Mullin's personal allocation, in an attempt to restore community trust and reduce circulating supply.
Last week, the platform launched mantraUSD, a stablecoin backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills designed as the required currency for accessing real-world asset products within MANTRA's ecosystem.
The company also reminded users that the ERC-20 version of OM must be migrated to the native MANTRA Chain token before January 15, 2026.
Mullin stated the restructuring aims to align operations with near-term realities while maintaining focus on the platform's position as a regulatory-compliant Layer 1 blockchain for real-world asset tokenization.