Mantra's OM Token Tanks 90% in a Day, CEO John Patrick Mullin Addresses the Wreckage

After Mantra's OM token tanked over 90% in a day, CEO John Patrick Mullin finally stepped in to address the wreckage.

After Mantra’s OM token tanked over 90% in a day, CEO John Patrick Mullin finally stepped in to address the community.

During an AMA hosted by Cointelegraph on April 14, Mullin attempted to soothe the community with talk of recovery plans, transparency, and what others view as deflecting blame.

The message was a bit of “We’ve got this. Sort of.” The founder said the team is working on a recovery plan that includes potential token buybacks and a burn mechanism but stressed that nothing is finalised.

Here We Go Again

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT published on X that he spoke to several people who were offered loan deals against OM in the days leading up to the crash, and two particular names rang the most:

At the time of the AMA, OM had rebounded slightly from its crash low of US$0.58 (AU$0.92) to around US$0.73 (AU$1.15), only to go back to US$0.58, as per CoinGecko data. Still, it is a far cry from its pre-crash level of US$6.30 (AU$9.93) and a long road back—assuming there even is a road back.

Long before OM’s Sunday collapse, critics had already flagged issues. A 2023 Hong Kong court ordered six Mantra DAO members—including CEO Mullin—to return financial records after being accused of misusing funds and treating the DAO like a personal piggy bank.

Mullin later told DL News that the dispute was settled amicably, but doubts lingered about how the token’s valuation was maintained.

According to on-chain data, one blockchain wallet holds approximately 77% of OM’s circulating supply. Critics maintain that the remaining publicly available tokens (valued at around US$500M, or AU$790M) were the sole contributors to the multibillion-dollar valuation. Mullin asserted that the tokens in that massive wallet are “dummy tokens” used for multi-chain tracking, and he claims that 90% of OM has been distributed.

Adding to the issues, a wallet tagged by Arkham Intelligence as belonging to Laser Digital, a crypto VC firm that backed Mantra last year, transferred over US$41M (AU64.8M) worth of OM to OKX just two days before the crash.