“It’s a tough day for OpenSea as we have to part with 20% of our team.”, Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of the largest NFT trading platform, announced on Twitter on Thursday. In a post on social media, Devin Finzer justifies the forced choice An unprecedented combination of “crypto winter”. [crash du marché des cryptoactifs] and global macroeconomic instability”. The company says the move will help it weather further market shocks for at least five years.
OpenSea largely benefited from the boom in the NFT market in 2021, with transaction volume multiplying by 600. The American company had raised a total of $400 million in a few months and registered a valuation of $13.3 billion in January 2022. In the same month, the platform saw more than $2.4 billion in weekly NFT purchases and resales, transactions on which it charges a 2.5% commission.
A wave of layoffs among crypto players
Opensea is suffering from a reversal in the cryptoasset market, which has seen the value of bitcoin melt by 70% from its peak in November 2021, when each was worth $69,000. Other major cryptocurrencies in the market also saw a 15 to 20% decline. All this would be due to inflation and interest rate hikes. This “crypto winter” has led to waves of cuts by major players in the industry, such as Coinbase, BlockFi, Gemini or Crypto.com.
Demand for NFTs has also fallen significantly. This translated to OpenSea’s sales volume halving the previous month. Some sale prices drop on popular collections like CryptoPunks or Bored Ape.
OpenSea did not disclose the number of layoffs, but the company told TechCrunch that 230 employees will remain at the company after this wave of departures. “For those leaving us, we will offer a generous severance package, health insurance until 2023 and accelerated vesting for those who do not reach their target. We will also help them find work and open up our personal networks to support them in any way we can.”continues the post.
Source: Le Figaro
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.