MANTRA Chain v8.2.0 - Strengthening MANTRA Chain: Inflation Recalibration and Emissions Update

MANTRA CHAIN v8.2.0 Proposal Summary

MANTRA Chain has reached an inflection point. ERC20 OM has been deprecated. The newly launched NVNM Chain, built with Inveniam as the verifiable backbone for AI agents operating across private market data and institutional RWAs, is preparing to anchor a new class of activity on the chain. The economic parameters set at mainnet genesis no longer reflect the chain we are becoming.

This proposal recommends two coordinated parameter changes:

1. Increase annual inflation from 8% to 16% in order to lift the bonded ratio from ~25% toward a level more appropriate to secure NVNM’s institutional agentic finance operations.

2. Update the Emissions split from 40% to 60% in order to improve and optimize chain security and fund the expanded operational coverage that MANTRA and NVNM will need in today's changing security landscape.

Together, these parameters reset MANTRA's economic backbone for the next phase of growth. The network should prioritize long-term network security over short-term nominal yield, while it keeps staking returns competitive with peer L1s.

Reasons for Proposal

Inflation Recalibration

MANTRA Chain currently runs at 8% inflation with a bonded ratio of ~25%. This ratio is not sufficient for the operations for which MANTRA Chain and its new NVNM Layer 2 are designed. MANTRA runs MANTRA EVM, hosts an expanding RWA ecosystem, and is preparing to anchor activity from the NVNM L2 Chain. The CometBFT layer at the bottom is the backbone for all of it, and that substrate must be robust enough to match the expected demand for its blockspace in the future.

A higher bonded ratio is the most direct lever we have. Under CometBFT, safety holds as long as no more than 1/3 of bonded stake is byzantine, and liveness holds as long as no more than 1/3 is offline. At a 25% bonded ratio, those thresholds correspond to roughly 8% and 16% of total supply respectively. This relatively low threshold makes it meaningfully cheaper to attack the chain. Moving the bonded ratio higher scales the absolute cost of attack alongside the absolute value secured.

Emissions Update

The crypto security landscape has continued to evolve. Public reporting from Chainalysis placed total crypto theft for 2025 above $3.4B, and 2026 has already seen over $765M in losses across roughly 50 incidents year-to-date, with more than $600M of that concentrated in just 12 incidents in April alone. Loss profiles in this environment are driven by a small number of large, infrastructure-targeted events rather than steady-state risk. Impersonation scams surged sharply year-on-year as deepfake and AI-driven attacks went mainstream, representing a shift in the risk profile that security administrators have to plan for.

As MANTRA scales NVNM Chain, combined with AI agents beginning to operate freely across both, the attack surface expands in kind. Defending against that requires ongoing investments rather than point-in-time audits.

Beyond the implications for information security, economic security has also come up directly in our conversations with institutional partners interested in using NVNM Chain for their data. A deeper bonded base and a better-resourced security budget are part of what these partners look for before committing meaningful workloads to the chain. Bolstering economic security is therefore a prerequisite for the kind of institutional adoption we are building toward.

Updating the emissions split to 60% gives MANTRA the resources to proactively cover these vectors: continuous auditing, threat intelligence, validator and signer hardening, monitoring, and incident response across a multi-chain footprint. Two additional considerations reinforce the case. First, MCA is no longer underwriting a single chain, so multi-chain operational costs have grown materially in absolute terms; second, a larger budget during growth lets the MCA build reserves that can be deployed during incidents without forcing reactive cuts elsewhere.

Conclusion

These two changes work together. The inflation increase keeps Sherpa yields competitive after the adjusted emission compresses post-split rewards. The emissions adjustment ensures a larger share of issuance is directed to operational security at exactly the moment when the security environment demands it.

In practical terms, Sherpas are trading a portion of nominal yield for a stronger security floor, a wider bonded base, and a chain better positioned for product expansion. We believe this is the right trade for MANTRA at this moment in its trajectory.

Proposal Timeline

• On-chain execution: Both parameters take effect at the block height following passage of this proposal.
• Scheduled review: No later than 12 months from the effective date, both parameters will be reviewed by MCA and brought back to Sherpas to confirm they remain appropriate given network state, security environment, and MCA operational scope at that time.

Technical Details & Additional Changes

Release Details

v8.2.0: github.com/MANTRA-Chain/mantrachain/releases/tag/v8.2.0

Alongside the economic parameter changes described above, the v8.2.0 binary includes several software improvements focused on security hardening, cross-chain infrastructure, and module maintenance.

Binary Checksums

v8.x Release Changelog

Upgrade Mechanics

• At the upgrade block height, the chain halts and the v8.2.0 binary is applied. There are no state migrations associated with this release.
• Upgrade handler: v8.2.0/app/upgrades/v8_2/upgrades.go
• Cosmovisor: Validators using Cosmovisor can configure automatic binary substitution via the published cosmovisor.json. Pre-built binaries with SHA-256 checksums are available for linux/amd64, linux/arm64, darwin/amd64, and darwin/arm64:

  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MANTRA-Chain/net/refs/heads/main/mantra-1/upgrades/v8.2.0/cosmovisor.json