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We report here the purification of a novel metal-binding protein from <i>Oratosquilla oratoria</i> (<i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1) by gel and ion-exchange chromatography. SDS-PAGE and MALDI-TOF analyses demonstrated that isolated <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 was of high purity with a molecular weight of 12.4 kDa. The fluorescence response to SBD-F derivatives revealed that <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 contained a large number of sulfhydryl groups, which is a general property of metallothioneins. Zn and Cu metal stoichiometries for <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 were 3.97:1 and 0.55:1, respectively. The proportion of cysteine (Cys) residues in the amino acid composition was 32.69%, and aromatic amino acids were absent. The peptide sequence coverage with <i>Macrobrachium rosenbergii</i> calmodulin (accession AOA3S8FSK5) was 60%. Infrared spectroscopy of <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 revealed two obvious peaks at absorption frequencies for the amide I band and the amide II band. CD spectra revealed that the secondary structure was mainly composed of random coil (57.6%) and β-sheet (39.9%). An evaluation of in vitro antioxidant activity revealed that isolated <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 has strong reducing activities, exhibiting scavenging rates for DPPH and OH of 77.8% and 75.8%, respectively (IC₅₀ values 0.57 mg/mL and 1.1 mg/mL). <i>O. oratoria</i> MT-1 may be used as a functional additive in cosmetics, health foods, and medical products, as well as a reference material for quantitative analysis of metallothionein in such products.