World’s largest NFT marketplace cuts 20% of its staff
Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has fired 20% of its workforce to reduce costs.
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Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has fired 20% of its workforce to reduce costs.
OpenSea's chief executive Devin Finzer shared a note informing employees about the layoffs.
"We made an incredibly sad and difficult decision to reduce our team by ∼20%, and today we are saying goodbye to many of our friends and team members across OpenSea," he wrote.
Finzer named crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability as the main challenges. To prepare for the possibility of a prolonged downturn, the company decided to lay off one-fifth of its staff.
"The changes we are making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (5 years at the current volume) and give us high confidence that we will only have to go through this process once," he said.
According to Reuters, OpenSea's NFT sales volume on the ethereum blockchain plunged to $700 million in June, down from $2.6 billion in May and a far cry from January's peak of nearly $5 billion.
In June, cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase will slash approximately 18% of its global workforce.
The company announced a restructuring plan to manage its operating expenses "in response to current market conditions."
It is planning to reduce its workforce by approximately 1,100 employees. By the end of the current fiscal quarter, Coinbase expects to have about 5,000 employees. It estimates that the restructuration will incur about $40 million to $45 million in total restructuring expenses.
Cybernews recently reported that giant tech corporations and well-known startups are cutting their staff to prepare for a "storm" to come – a feared recession.
Crypto organizations, such as Bitso, T2M, Gemini, Rain, and Buenbit have all announced staff reductions.
According to the Wall Street Journal, cybersecurity and privacy companies have laid off at least 1,400 workers since late May. Cybereason, Lacework, Deep Instinct, OneTrust, and Automox have reportedly decided to cut their staff recently.