Bridging Traditional Finance and Crypto: The Rise of MANTRA's Tokenization Ecosystem

1. Ishan Pandey: Hi John, welcome to our "Behind the Startup" series. Could you share some insights into your transition from a traditional investment banking background to becoming a FinTech entrepreneur and how your experiences have influenced the vision and direction of MANTRA?

John Patrick Mullin: I had been in crypto for. For a long time before I actually joined a bank. I bought my first bitcoin in 2013, which was when I was back in university. So I think I've been pretty crypto native in technology, technologically driven, since a very young age. Even when I was at the bank, I was researching fintech and blockchain and other types of financial technology applications. So it was more about the culture and the type of business I wanted to work in.

I definitely like the convergence of both the tech and the finance part, but it was more about this. I think the reason that I ended up shifting out and going into entrepreneurship is the ability to build something from scratch, lead people, work with people on incredibly tough challenges every day, and I'm just a bit of a workaholic, so entrepreneurship suits me.

2. Ishan Pandey: Could you elaborate on the specific products and features that MANTRA is planning to launch to facilitate DeFi participation for both institutional and retail investors?

John Patrick Mullin: At MANTRA we are building our Module layer which has MANTRA Token Service Module, MANTRA Assets Module, Guard Layer, MANTRA Compliance Module that enable creation, management and trading of RWAs for institutions, businesses, retailers, developers and users at ease.

3. Ishan Pandey: How does MANTRA collaborate with regulatory authorities and industry partners to establish best practices and standards for tokenizing RWAs within the DeFi ecosystem?

John Patrick Mullin: MANTRA is in the process of applying for requisite licensing for on chain exchange and brokerage, as well as asset investment management products in the UAE. We also work with regulated partners in other jurisdictions. One of the ways that we're able to cooperate and adhere to regulatory requirements is through our unique custom guard module on the MANTRA Chain, which allows us to create a compliant cocoon for many of the on chain applications that would require oversight, regulatory oversight and compliance.

4. Ishan Pandey: How do tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) contribute to MANTRA’s strategy and offer unique opportunities for investors? Can you provide examples of tokenized RWAs that  MANTRA Finance plans to offer?

John Patrick Mullin: MANTRA plans to offers a variety of RWAs to offer unique and extensive opportunities that includes stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, art work and varied illiquid Traditional Assets.

5. Ishan Pandey: What motivated the decision to debut yield-bearing DeFi products initially, followed by the launch of a Central Limit Order Book (CLOB) DEX and derivative products?

John Patrick Mullin: Initially, we decided that it would make the most sense to launch with vault style products or yield bearing products, which obviously allow users to get exposure to not just RWAs, but other types of crypto yield bearing instruments. I think the two things in crypto that people are interested in is both the yield seeking part as well as the speculative part. So we want to cater to both parts of this user experience. We believe that naturally an exchange is really important to have within an ecosystem, whether that's a DEX, an order book exchange, etc. but we also believe in bringing finance onchain. So it made sense to launch an onchain sentiment order book that sits on top of an AMM, allowing for both. Simple swapping as well as more sophisticated trading structures.

6. Ishan Pandey: What role does MANTRA Chain play within the MANTRA ecosystem, and how does it generate revenue?

John Patrick Mullin: MANTRA Chain is the underpinning of everything within the MANTRA ecosystem. The OM token is the center of all this, which is the native token of the MANTRA Chain. We believe in this idea of the app chain thesis. So the protocol that we're developing, which is MANTRA Chain, has created specifically purpose built technology and software that allows applications that build on top of it to comply with local regulations across the globe. It's really the protocol for the entirety of our ecosystem.

7. Ishan Pandey: As MANTRA moves towards its initial equity financing round, what are the key priorities for the company in terms of investor relations and fundraising activities?

John Patrick Mullin: We raised $11 million, led by Shorooq Partners, which is a leading fintech VC in the UAE. Some of the priorities for the company, now that we've raised this capital, is hiring, expanding the team, growing our licensing capabilities, etc.

8. Ishan Pandey: How does MANTRA ensure the integrity and authenticity of tokenized RWAs on its platform, especially considering the potential for fraud or misrepresentation in the tokenization process?

John Patrick Mullin: MANTRA has its own Guard Module and Passportable DIDs that ensures a walled garden of KYC/KYB and Anti Money Laundering system.

9. Ishan Pandey: Could you elaborate on the potential challenges associated with cross-border compliance and regulatory differences when dealing with tokenized RWAs from various jurisdictions, and how MANTRA plans to address them?

John Patrick Mullin: One of the things that is obviously incredibly important when it comes to dealing with RWAs and other types of products is the ability to adhere to local regulations. So because of that, we built this idea of the guard module, which allows for permissioning across the wallet, the product, the pool, the asset, etc. and we have this customizable ability to allow and permission usage from individuals from different jurisdictions and also block them from others. So we can actually stop people who are not able to touch and interact with products at the smart contract level via this guard module.

10. Ishan Pandey: How does MANTRA plan to educate investors about the benefits and risks of investing in tokenized RWAs compared to traditional financial instruments?

John Patrick Mullin: Education is a really important thing when you're creating a new market, and we're definitely beating the drum for RWAs and tokenized on chain financial products. We're doing interesting things with respect to various hackathons. Obviously a lot of in person engagement, educational content from our social media team and marketing team, and we'll also have some unique incubator style arrangements where we'll be actually supporting teams to build on this RWA focused ecosystem.

Additionally, we're cooperating with major academic institutions, particularly their blockchain clubs, that will allow us to educate the next generation about onchain financial products.

11. Ishan Pandey: How does MANTRA perceive the role of RWAs in the future of crypto? Additionally, how does MANTRA aim to bring RWAs into the mainstream investor's radar?

John Patrick Mullin: I believe that RWAs are just an extension of the financial system bringing it on chain. RWAs is frankly a bad acronym, it was called STO not too long ago. So I think there's a better way to actually describe these type of products and it's mainly just geared around tokenization. So I believe almost everything can be tokenized. That doesn't mean everything should be tokenized, but most financial products and platforms in my opinion in the future will be on some degree of a blockchain, although you may not know that it's on a blockchain. So I think this is incredibly important for our strategy. We believe the financial ecosystem is moving onchain and we'll be at the forefront of that.

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