MANTRA DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization and DeFi protocol founded in 2020 and incorporated in the Seychelles. It began as a community-governed staking and lending platform built on the Polkadot ecosystem, before pivoting to develop its own Layer 1 blockchain – MANTRA Chain – with a focus on real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and regulated digital finance, particularly in the Middle East.
The project raised $11 million in a strategic funding round in 2024 backed by Laser Digital, the digital asset subsidiary of Nomura. MANTRA Chain subsequently obtained a Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), positioning itself as one of the few Layer 1 networks with regulatory approval in the UAE. The team announced a partnership with Google Cloud to support node infrastructure and developer onboarding on MANTRA Chain.
MANTRA DAO's native token, OM, reached an all-time high near $6 in early 2025, giving the project a fully diluted valuation above $5 billion. Public information about total AUM or assets under management held by MANTRA DAO as an investment vehicle is limited – the organization operates primarily as a protocol and ecosystem fund rather than a traditional venture firm.
Notable investments
- MANTRA Chain ecosystem projects – the DAO deploys grants and co-investments into projects building on its own chain, with a focus on RWA tokenization, DeFi primitives, and regulated financial products in MENA markets.
- UAE RWA partnerships – MANTRA signed memoranda of understanding with multiple UAE-based real estate and financial entities for on-chain asset tokenization, though specific deal sizes have not been disclosed publicly.
Public information about the specific five portfolio companies attributed to MANTRA DAO in third-party databases is limited. The DAO has not published a formal portfolio page comparable to traditional venture funds.
Team
- John Patrick Mullin – Co-founder and CEO. Previously worked in traditional finance in Asia before moving into crypto. Based in Dubai.
- Will Corkin – Co-founder. Focused on business development and institutional partnerships.
- Rodrigo Quan Miranda – Co-founder. Background in blockchain development and protocol design.
The founding team has been public-facing and regularly appears at crypto conferences in Dubai, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Detailed professional biographies for all senior team members are available on the MANTRA Chain official site.
Recent activity
April 2025 marked the most significant controversy in MANTRA DAO's history. The OM token collapsed by approximately 90% within hours on April 13, 2025 – dropping from roughly $6.30 to below $0.70 – amid allegations of coordinated insider selling and large-scale liquidations of leveraged positions. The event wiped out billions in market capitalization. John Patrick Mullin publicly denied any team-driven sell-off, attributing the crash to forced liquidations by exchanges, and proposed a token burn to restore confidence. The incident drew significant scrutiny from the crypto community and media, including coverage by CoinDesk and Cointelegraph. A full independent post-mortem had not been published as of mid-2025.
Prior to the crash, MANTRA had been one of the stronger-performing tokens of the 2024–2025 cycle, buoyed by genuine institutional interest in RWA tokenization and its UAE regulatory footprint. Whether the project recovers depends heavily on the team's ability to rebuild trust, retain its VARA license, and demonstrate actual on-chain activity from its announced RWA partnerships. The OM collapse is now one of the more studied examples of liquidity-driven token implosions in the cycle, regardless of its underlying cause.