Giant NFT marketplace OpenSea lays off about 20 percent of its staff - The Verge

The latest Web3 firm to cite "crypto winter" as a reason for significant layoffs is OpenSea. The NFT marketplace is laying off 20 percent of its staff, according to CEO Devin Finzer.

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer revealed this afternoon that the NFT marketplace is laying off about 20 percent of its employees. Finzer did not indicate how many people that represented. A Forbes article in January celebrating Finzer and his co-founder Alex Atallah’s $2.2 billion net worth (each) said the company employed more than 70 people, but an OpenSea spokesperson tells The Verge that 230 people will remain with the company.

When we profiled OpenSea in February, the company had just received an additional $300 million in funding with a valuation of $13.3 billion and was the dominant player in selling the tokens, earning a 2.5 percent commission on trades.

Still, a sustained drop in activity and prices has led to headlines about how NFT Sales Are Flatlining or have Fallen Off the Cliff, while backlash to the entire concept has followed many companies that adopted them or suggested they might. Recently, Reddit launched an NFT Collectible Avatars feature without openly referencing the term, and just today, a Sony marketing exec had to dismiss concerns from gamers that a new digital collectibles feature would bring the blockchain and NFTs to its PS5s.

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

https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/14/23219076/opensea-nft-layoffs-web3-crypto

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