MANTRA Cuts Staff as OM Languishes 99% Below ATH; ERC20 Deprecation Looms
CEO John Patrick Mullin cites an ‘unsustainable cost structure’ as MANTRA slashes non-technical roles and prepares to deprecate Ethereum token support tomorrow.
MANTRA CEO John Patrick Mullin confirmed a significant workforce reduction on Wednesday, slashing headcount across business development, marketing, and HR. The restructuring comes as the protocol’s native token, OM, struggles to recover from a catastrophic 2025 collapse that wiped out over $5 billion in market value.
The layoffs arrive less than 24 hours before a critical infrastructure deadline: MANTRA will deprecate its Ethereum-based ERC20 token support on January 15, 2026. Holders who fail to bridge to the MANTRA Chain by tomorrow risk stranded assets, a move designed to consolidate liquidity on the native network but likely to further alienate passive holders.
The ‘Unsustainable’ Reality
In a statement regarding the restructure, Mullin cited an "unsustainable cost structure" following a prolonged period of market underperformance. While specific headcount numbers were not disclosed, reports indicate the cuts are deep, targeting non-technical roles to preserve the protocol’s operational runway.
The project’s treasury has been effectively hamstrung since the April 14, 2025 flash crash. During that event, OM plummeted 90%, from ~$6.00 to under $0.50, in a single trading session. Mullin has repeatedly characterized the event as a "cascade of reckless forced liquidations" rather than a protocol failure, later describing the market dynamics as "incredibly unfortunate and frankly unfair."
The OM token currently trades near $0.078, down roughly 99% from its February 2025 all-time high of $8.99.
Migration or Dust
The timing of the layoffs coincides with MANTRA’s aggressive push to decouple from Ethereum. As of Thursday, January 15, the protocol will cease support for the ERC20 iteration of OM. While the team reports that over 70% of the supply has been bridged to the MANTRA Chain, a significant portion of the remaining float, likely held by inactive wallets or trapped on centralized exchanges, faces functional obsolescence.
Market makers have already widened spreads on the ERC20 pair, anticipating the liquidity cliff. For MANTRA, the forced migration is a final bid to capture value within its own sovereign ecosystem, effectively burning the bridges to the chain that originally hosted its liquidity.
