Key Highlights
- Mantra is cutting jobs across multiple teams, including marketing and HR, to operate more leanly after a tough year.
- Mantra’s OM token dropped from $8.99 in February 2025 to $0.59 by April, losing nearly 99% of its value.
- The company plans to prioritize core projects like the Mantra chain, mantraUSD, and Mantra Finance.
Mantra, a blockchain project focused on real-world assets (RWAs), is restructuring its operations after what CEO John Patrick Mullin described as “the most difficult year in the company’s history,” following the sharp collapse of its native token, OM, and ongoing market pressure.
The company plans to shift to a leaner structure and streamline operations to adapt to current market conditions, including laying off some of its staff.
In an X post on Wednesday, Mullin stated, “I take full accountability for these decisions and for the path that led us here. I know this is an incredibly challenging situation, particularly for those directly impacted, for their families, and for everyone at MANTRA. I’m especially sorry to those leaving us.”
The restructuring includes job cuts across multiple teams, especially business development, marketing, human resources, and other support functions. Mullin said the changes are part of its reset plan rather than just reducing costs. The company said it will put more attention on its main projects, including the Mantra layer-1 chain, mantraUSD, and Mantra Finance.
OM token crash and market impact
The OM token collapse in April 2025 was the main trigger for the restructuring. The token fell from $8.99 on February 23, 2025, to $0.59 by April 15, losing almost 99% of its value. The crash affected Mantra’s total value locked (TVL), which fell from $4.26 million to below $590,000 in two weeks and currently sits under $865,000.
The token is currently trading for $0.08, despite a 123% surge in trading activity in the last 24 hours. This is about $90.27 million in trading volume, while its market capitalization now sits at $93.3 million.
Mantra blamed the collapse on aggressive leverage policies on centralized exchanges and warned that such moves can disrupt the market.
Mullin said the crash affected more than just Mantra and asked exchanges to rethink how they handle leverage on tokens. In response, the company introduced new rules and transparency measures, including spreading out validator control, launching a real-time token dashboard, and burning 150 million staked OM tokens to reduce supply.
Path forward towards recovery
The potential restructuring is intended to make the project more capital-efficient and focused on supporting long-term sustainability. Mullin stressed that the layoffs were a hard decision to prioritize core execution in 2026, and praised those leaving for their contributions. “The people leaving MANTRA are talented and dedicated, and they have contributed immensely to our progress,” he added.
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