OpenSea, the most popular NFT marketplace in the industry, will be cutting back its employees.
Due to the current economic state, the seasonal crypto winter, and the slow down of NFT sales, the company has announced that it will proceed to lay off 20% of its employees.
OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer went to Twitter and revealed the latest steps they are taking in the company. Finzer shared the note he shared with his team about this sudden cut back.
OpenSea's Layoff
OpenSea co-founder and CEO stated in his note, "the reality is that we have entered an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn."
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
OpenSea explained the reasoning behind the decision to cut back. The company also did not mention the exact numbers of how many employees will represent the 20%, although The Verge reported that 230 people will remain in the company.
In addition, the company will also be helping with job placement and committed to the employees that they will be helping those who are affected in whatever way they can.
Finzer notes, "The changes we're 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 only have to go through this process once."
The CEO stated that the company has experienced crypto winter before. When OpenSea was created and developed, the company had the cyclicality of the industry in mind.
Lastly, the company indicates that throughout the years, it was able to build a very strong balance sheet through the money they raised and their proven product-market fit.
According to Engadget, the company received another venture capital funding in January amounting to $300 million.
The fund was intended to hire 90 more employees and build a creator fund for the artists although the investors were not named.
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NFT Marketplace
The NFT marketplace that was founded by Atallah and Finzer had dominated the industry for quite some time, becoming the most popular go to place when purchasing, trading and investing in NFTs.
OpenSea became home to the most popular NFT collections, housing numerous projects from different artists in all parts of the world.
However, gone are those days since platforms for NFT marketplaces have also increased over time. On top of that, the company has a sustained drop in activity and prices.
The NFT company is undeniably a significant player in the industry, it has now reached a valuation of $13.3 billion and continues to earn a 2.5% commission per transaction in its marketplace.
Aside from OpenSea or another major player like Coinbase, another NFT marketplace has also been launched.
After months of teases and hype among some retail traders and investors, GameStop recently launched its most awaited NFT marketplace in beta on Monday.
As iTechPost reported, GameStp's marketplace was able to exchange a total of 1,835 of Ethereum which is equivalent to approximately $1.98 million.
In the first 24 hours of the launch, it gained $44,500 from the 2.25% commission per transaction.
This crypto winter, Opensea has cut some of its workforce, joining a growing number of other prominent crypto giants who have done the same. Along with companies like BlockFi, Gemini, and Coinbase.
