OpenSea, the largest marketplace dedicated to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is going to have to let go of 20% of its staff, or over 200 people. According to its CEO, the company has no choice if it wants to spend the next 5 years without having to lay off again.
The OpenSea platform in trouble
The bear market continues its work: today, it is the non-fungible token platform (NFTs) OpenSea that seems to be affected, with the consequence of having to separate from 20% of its staff. The announcement was made via Twitter by Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of the company.
The exact number of employees affected by this wave of layoffs was not explicitly mentioned, but according to our colleagues from TechCrunch, it would concern 230 people. As stated in the press release, this is an “incredibly sad and difficult” decision for the company, which also said that the individuals affected would be treated “with great care”.
As a result, the dismissed employees will receive 12 weeks of severance pay, six months of medical coverage, an outplacement service and other benefits. According to the company’s CEO, this separation is necessary in order to go through the next 5 years without having to make a similar decision.
Unsurprisingly, OpenSea primarily wants to protect itself and ensure its back in an uncertain environment, both in the cryptocurrency market and the “classic” economic market:
“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.”
OpenSea thus joins the ranks of the many large companies in the crypto ecosystem that have had to part ways with some of their staff, like Crypto.com, Gemini or Coinbase.
A brutal fall for OpenSea and for NFTs
The bear market is far from sparing the NFTs sector: according to Dune data, June was by far the worst month for OpenSea in a year, showing -73% compared to the previous month.
Indeed, while it had been recording over $2.5 billion in monthly volume since August 2021, OpenSea saw that volume drop to just under $700 million last month.
The company’s main source of revenue comes from transactions, on which it earns a commission of around 2.5%. Thus, it is quite likely that the platform expects to record a similar volume in the long run.
Looksrare, one of OpenSea’s main competitors, did not fail to respond to Devin Finzer’s tweet, indicating that it is currently recruiting on several hubs.
However, OpenSea remains the leader of NFT marketplaces and has the support of many investors, as proven by its last fundraising earlier this year, which brought the company’s valuation to $13.3 billion, even though it has only been in existence for 4 years.
