Mantra’s Bold Reboot: Staff Cuts & Restructuring After OM Token’s ’Brutal’ Collapse
Mantra slashes headcount and tears up its corporate playbook. The move comes directly on the heels of what insiders are calling a 'brutal' collapse in its native OM token's value—a stark reminder that in crypto, gravity always wins.
The Anatomy of a Pivot
Forget gentle course corrections. This is a full-scale strategic overhaul. The company is streamlining operations, consolidating teams, and sharpening its focus on core protocol development. The goal? To build a leaner, more resilient organization that can weather the next market storm—because let's be honest, there's always another one brewing.
Beyond the Headlines
While staff reductions grab attention, the real story is the structural shift. Mantra isn't just cutting costs; it's attempting to reinvent its operational DNA. The restructuring aims to boost development velocity and improve treasury management—a classic move for projects that have felt the sting of dwindling runway and investor patience.
A Token's Tale
The OM token's precipitous drop served as the ultimate catalyst. It wasn't a dip; it was a cliff dive that forced leadership's hand. The subsequent restructuring is a direct, albeit painful, response to that market verdict. It's the corporate equivalent of hitting the emergency brake and swerving.
The New Mantra Mantra
Efficiency. Sustainability. Core value. These aren't just buzzwords now; they're survival tactics. The restructured entity will likely double down on its foundational technology, hoping to prove that real utility can outlast speculative hype. After all, nothing focuses the mind like a 90% drawdown on the balance sheet—it's the ultimate accountability partner Wall Street never had.
Looking Ahead
This isn't an ending; it's a brutal new beginning. The crypto world will be watching to see if a leaner Mantra can rebuild trust and deliver on its original promise. The path forward is paved with hard choices, but sometimes you have to break things to build something stronger. Just ask any VC who's ever written off a seven-figure investment.
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The decision comes after a year marked by aggressive expansion, a brutal token drawdown, and a prolonged downturn in market sentiment toward real-world asset tokenization.
Mantra Tightens Operations Token Collapse and prolonged market pressure
In a statement shared publicly, Mullin said the restructuring WOULD involve job cuts across several teams, with business development, marketing, HR, and support roles among those most affected.
He claimed it was done as a response to the reality of matching expenditure with short-term realities since the cost base of Mantra could not be sustained in the face of the deteriorating market conditions.
Mullin added that the company would now be directed to disciplined execution, tightening of resources, and capital efficiency as it aims at stabilizing and rebuilding.
Going into 2024 and early 2025, Mantra had big growth plans and heavy investments to scale its RWA infrastructure, its chain, and its overall ecosystem.
Such effort assisted in making the project one of the top Layer-1s that concentrate on tokenized real-world assets.
However, Mullin said a combination of unfavorable events in April 2025, intensifying competition, and a prolonged market downturn ultimately forced the company to change course.
On April 13, the token fell from around $6.30 to below $0.50 during low-liquidity weekend trading, wiping out more than $6 billion in market capitalization within 24 hours, and triggered widespread concern across the DeFi sector.
MANTRA's Core team denies wrongdoing after its native token $OM suffers a massive 90% token drop, sparking investor panic and allegations of a rug pull.#Mantra #OM https://t.co/PtDjGiHbCT
Mantra denied any wrongdoing at the time, attributing the crash to forced liquidations by a large token holder on a centralized exchange.
CoinGecko data shows that OM had reached an all-time high of $8.99 in February 2025 before falling to as low as $0.59 by mid-April and remains trading roughly 99% below its peak.
Mantra Seeks Fresh Start After Cuts Back
In the aftermath of the collapse, Mantra took several steps aimed at restoring confidence, with Mullin announcing plans to burn 150 million OM tokens allocated to him at mainnet genesis, with the unstaking process completed later in April 2025.
A token buyback program and a public tokenomics dashboard were also introduced as part of a broader effort to improve transparency.
The project’s challenges were compounded later in 2025 by a public dispute with crypto exchange OKX over the timing and structure of OM’s token migration.
Mullin accused the exchange of publishing incorrect migration dates and urged users to withdraw tokens and follow official Mantra channels instead. The dispute added to uncertainty for holders already shaken by the April collapse.
Mantra CEO @jp_mullin888 warns $OM holders to withdraw tokens from OKX immediately amid disputed migration dates #OM #OKX #Mantrahttps://t.co/p9rRttPXcs
Against that backdrop, Mullin said the restructuring is designed to extend Mantra’s runway and refocus the company on execution rather than expansion.
As the company looks to the future, Mullin explained that Mantra would be more disciplined and will ship faster and push itself forward into a sustainable and profitable future.
He said the company remains committed to its RWA strategy and believes a leaner structure will leave it better positioned to navigate market volatility and deliver on its long-term vision as the next phase of crypto adoption unfolds.
