That is the story of how Mantra secured a profitable RWA tokenization deal – after which misplaced it. Price a reported $500M when it was unveiled to nice fanfare a 12 months in the past, the information was adopted by radio silence from its signatories. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, the deal resurfaced this 12 months. However this time it had been awarded to a unique Layer 1 blockchain whose title 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 information of the biggest 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 will put RWAs on the map and make Mantra a significant participant within the race to tokenize real-world property of all types.
The information was confirmed in an organization weblog publish, which elaborated on the phrases of the cope with Dubai actual property large MAG, noting: “Traders taking part 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 additionally 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’ growth, a part of the Keturah Resort.” On July 3, Mantra CEO John Patrick Mullin mentioned the phrases of the deal in a video interview, full with Arabic subtitles for the good thing about 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 last publish 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 Sport
On Might 1, it was revealed that MAG Group had signed a cope with Mavryk Dynamics to tokenize $3B of actual property property together with the identical ones that had been cited within the authentic Mantra deal: the Ritz-Carlton in Dubai. However this time, the actual property group was going additional and committing a whole $3B of its property portfolio, with the property to be issued on Multibank’s new RE platform working on Mavryk.
On a superficial foundation, Mavryk and Mantra seem to have so much in widespread: 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 seeking to have handed to Mavryk, it’s clear who’s managing the Fisher account, so to talk.
Apart from the dimensions of the deal rising six-fold, a lot of the different particulars seem to have remained unchanged from the unique Mantra deal, equivalent 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 invest as to why MAG Group might have elected to maneuver forward with the RE tokenization deal utilizing a unique blockchain and launch accomplice. Probably the most benign of those being a need 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 property MAG Group’s been eager to tokenize have been left in limbo for near a 12 months.
However one other doable studying of the scenario is that MAG Group hasn’t jumped ship: it might have merely hedged its bets and elected to maneuver forward with Mavryk whereas additionally maintaining 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 consider Dubai has a plan to tokenize & commerce fractional RE property inside the first half of this 12 months.” When requested whether or not the property could be tokenized on Mantra or elsewhere, he replied “In all probability each.”
Wherever the reality lies, this a lot may 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 show this one right into a working actuality, along with issuer Multibank, the momentum may be very a lot with Mavryk. The onus is now on it to grab this chance and use it to rework the publicity right into a working actual property actuality – and the earlier the higher.