That is the story of how Mantra secured a profitable RWA tokenization deal – after which misplaced it. Value a reported $500M when it was unveiled to nice fanfare a yr in the past, the information was adopted by radio silence from its signatories. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the deal resurfaced this yr. However this time it had been awarded to a distinct Layer 1 blockchain whose identify begins with M – and its worth had multiplied by 6x alongside the best way.
Mantra, MAG, and the Deal That By no means Was
On July 3, 2024, real-world asset blockchain Mantra broke the news of the most important tokenization deal in its historical past. “MANTRA and MAG will collaborate to democratize entry to luxurious UAE actual property utilizing safe, yield-bearing vault merchandise backed by MANTRA’s L1 expertise.” It appeared by any reckoning the actual deal, an settlement that might put RWAs on the map and make Mantra a significant participant within the race to tokenize real-world belongings of every kind.
The information was confirmed in an organization blog post, which elaborated on the phrases of the cope with Dubai actual property large MAG, noting: “Buyers collaborating within the vault product will profit from a compelling reward construction. They will anticipate to obtain a mixed yield, with an estimated 8% APY generated from stablecoins, additional augmented by MANTRA’s native token, $OM.”
CoinDesk also picked up on the story, including that the $500M deal would come with “a $75 million mega-mansion at ‘The Ritz-Carlton Residences, Dubai, Creekside’ improvement, a part of the Keturah Resort.” On July 3, Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin discussed the phrases of the deal in a video interview, full with Arabic subtitles for the advantage of viewers hailing from MAG Group’s seat in Dubai.
After which…nothing. It’s just like the deal simply disappeared. We all know it was nonetheless lively by late 2024, even when Mantra wasn’t actively posting about it, as a result of JP Mullin talked about it in passing in November. His ultimate submit on the subject occurred in January, once we tweeted: “Wild wanting again at 2024: Began with a tokenomics proposal…Ended with Google Cloud, BlackRock, and MAG.”
After which, out of nowhere, a wild Mavryk appeared.
Participant 2 Enters the Recreation
On Might 1, it was revealed that MAG Group had signed a cope with Mavryk Dynamics to tokenize $3B of actual property belongings together with the identical ones that have been cited within the unique Mantra deal: the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai. However this time, the actual property group was going additional and committing a complete $3B of its property portfolio, with the belongings to be issued on Multibank’s new RE platform working on Mavryk.
On a superficial foundation, Mavryk and Mantra seem to have rather a lot in frequent: they’re each RWA Layer 1s. They share the identical broad mission they usually even have broadly comparable names. In American Psycho phrases, one’s Paul Allen and the opposite’s Patrick Bateman. The query of who’s obtained the higher haircut and enterprise card remains to be to be decided. However with the Dubai property deal now wanting to have handed to Mavryk, it’s clear who’s managing the Fisher account, so to communicate.
Other than the dimensions of the deal rising six-fold, a lot of the different particulars seem to have remained unchanged from the unique Mantra deal, comparable to the chance for token-holders to earn yield on the underlying actual property, all paid out onchain. Given Mantra’s silence since first saying its personal deal final June, adopted by Mavryk’s jubilation upon unveiling its personal this month, it seems that MAG has jumped ship – or is it merely hedging its bets?
Mavryk, Mantra, and MAG’s Merry-Go-Spherical
It’s simple to speculate as to why MAG Group could have elected to transfer forward with the RE tokenization deal utilizing a distinct blockchain and launch accomplice. Probably the most benign of those being a want to get the ball rolling once more after the unique Mantra deal seems to have stagnated. Be it for technical causes, monetary ones, or another complication, the belongings MAG Group’s been wanting to tokenize have been left in limbo for shut to a yr.
However one other attainable studying of the scenario is that MAG Group hasn’t jumped ship: it could have merely hedged its bets and elected to transfer forward with Mavryk whereas additionally preserving the Mantra deal on the desk. A touch as to this may be present in a tweet from Mantra’s JP Mullin in March, when he wrote: “I imagine Dubai has a plan to tokenize & commerce fractional RE belongings throughout the first half of this yr.” When requested whether or not the belongings could be tokenized on Mantra or elsewhere, he replied “In all probability each.”
Wherever the reality lies, this a lot might be mentioned with confidence: Mavryk now has a deal permitting it to tokenize one of many largest actual property portfolios in RWA historical past. And with MAG Group seemingly decided to flip this one right into a working actuality, along with issuer Multibank, the momentum could be very a lot with Mavryk. The onus is now on it to seize this chance and use it to remodel the publicity right into a working actual property actuality – and the earlier the higher.
