Mantra

MANTRA (MANTRA Chain) is a modular Layer 1 blockchain engineered for decentralized finance and the tokenization of real-world assets, with a stated design commitment to regulatory compliance. The chain is built with the Cosmos SDK and, following the v5.0.0 "Abunnati" upgrade, includes a native EVM module allowing Solidity smart contracts to be deployed with standard Ethereum tooling such as Hardhat, Foundry and Remix. It offers native cross-chain interoperability via Inter-Blockchain Communication relays and bridges, and supports both permissionless and permissioned applications so that regulated entities can enforce requirements such as KYC/KYB, know-your-transaction and know-your-validator controls.

The company states its goal is to build an end-to-end ecosystem covering the full lifecycle of real-world assets — including instruments such as funds, bonds and private credit — rather than operating as a general-purpose Layer 1. It launched what it describes as the first dedicated RWA Layer 1 testnet in November 2023 and maintains a public GitHub organization with roughly 49 repositories covering the core chain, network genesis and configuration files, monitoring tools, and forks of Cosmos SDK, the Cosmos EVM framework and block explorer software. The network has a native token, OM, traded on centralized exchanges including Upbit and Bithumb.

MANTRA holds a Virtual Asset Service Provider license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), permitting it to operate as a digital asset exchange and to provide broker-dealer, management and investment services. In June 2026 its strategic backer Inveniam Capital Partners agreed to acquire MANTRA and associated companies, with the deal expected to close in the third quarter of 2026; the two firms had jointly built NVNM Chain, a Layer 2 designed for registering AI-agent identity, constraining agent scope and recording verifiable cryptographic evidence of agent activity in regulated workflows.

Business model

MANTRA operates public blockchain infrastructure around a native token (OM) and an ecosystem of DeFi and RWA tokenization applications built by third-party developers, supported by validators, oracle and relayer operators. It also pursues regulated financial activity under its Dubai VARA Virtual Asset Service Provider license, which covers digital asset exchange as well as broker-dealer, management and investment services.

Traction

MANTRA launched what it describes as the first dedicated RWA Layer 1 testnet in November 2023 and had produced more than 17.4 million blocks by August 2026. Its OM token trades on centralized venues including Upbit and Bithumb; 24-hour trading volume reached about $24 million during the August 2026 outage. A company transparency report cited in early August 2026 put circulating supply at roughly 5.53 billion tokens.

Latest developments

In June 2026 Inveniam Capital Partners, which had invested $20 million in MANTRA in 2025, agreed to acquire the company and its associated entities, with closing expected in Q3 2026. In January 2026 MANTRA announced a restructuring and layoffs after CEO John Patrick Mullin described 2025 as the project's most challenging year. Days after a MANTRA Zone EVM upgrade, on 20-21 August 2026 the network halted block production at block 17,449,398 following an attacker's exploitation of a vulnerability in an upstream software dependency; all public endpoints, validators, bridge migration operations and MANTRA-managed IBC relays were taken offline, Upbit and Bithumb suspended OM deposits and withdrawals, and the token fell 18.5% to an all-time low of $0.004126 before recovering to about $0.0044. The team prepared a patched release and said restart required coordinated validator upgrades, with no timeline given.