The world’s largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens, OpenSea, has announced the lays offs of 20% of its workforce amid the crypto market downturn.
OpenSea Lays off 20% of its Workforce
In a tweet on Thursday, July 14th, Chief Executive Officer of OpenSea Devin Finzer announced the job cuts. The tweet read:
Today is a hard day for OpenSea, as we’re letting go of ~20% of our team. Here’s the note I shared with our team earlier this morning: pic.twitter.com/E5k6gIegH7— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) July 14, 2022
While the OpenSea Chief Exec stated that the company would be letting go of 20% of its staff, it was not stated precisely how many employees would be affected by the cuts. However, in a follow-up statement, the company revealed that it would have 230 employees on its books following the layoffs.
According to Finzer, by reducing its headcount by 20%, the leading NFT marketplace will be able to maintain its five years of growth at current volumes even under a variety of potential downturn scenarios.
Finzer remarked that the discharged staff would be provided with health insurance by OpenSea “into 2023.” They will also receive accelerated equity vesting along with 12 weeks of severance.
OpenSea Suffers the Wrath of the Crypto Winter
OpenSea enjoyed remarkable growth in 2021 thanks in part to the explosive growth of non-fungible token sales. However, the company took a hit amid the unprecedented market crash, which has seen 70% of the crypto industry’s valuation wiped out.
OpenSea’s NFT sales volume on the Ethereum blockchain plunged to $700 million in June, down from the $2.6 billion recorded in May, and a far cry from January’s peak of nearly $5 billion.
On the Flipside
- While OpenSea executed the wave of job cuts, rival marketplace LooksRare announced that it was looking to take on staff.
Why You Should Care
The OpenSea lay offs come amidst fears of a prolonged downturn as the decline in the prices of cryptocurrencies and the broader economic instability intensify.
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