NFT Platforms Oops

OpenSea lays off 20% of staff in one go.

Photo by Max Böhme on Unsplash

OpenSea may have lost some folk in an NFT storm.

No that the fun’s over you don’t hear about how much demand for NFTs are down. It’s pretty stark. Despite a significant depression in the crypto markets, many top players are hesitant to say that the good times are over, but an NFT Marketplace announced today it is laying off about 20% of the company’s workforce.

OpenSea backed by a16z is pretty much one of the main market leaders of Web3.

As if this wasn’t going to happen.

Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) @dfinzer

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:

The company did not specify exactly how many employees were impacted by the decision, but the company’s LinkedIn page indicates the company has around 750+ employees currently. Finzer says that impacted employees will be receiving severance and health insurance “into 2023” as well as accelerated equity vesting.

• 20% of 750 is at least 150 impacted employees.

• Don’t worry though, they have raised $427 million already with a probably totally unrealistic valuation. (Series C)

The way we view NFTs will never be the same as they went to the moon in 2021.

OpenSea was one of the clear early winners for adoption of the NFT market that shone bright as pandemic stimulus flushed us with cash.

That they are having their own “Coinbase” moment is not so surprising. The layoffs raise questions about the company’s aggressive growth tactics and how they approached the sustainability of the NFT sector’s breakneck growth. In his note to staff, Finzer says the company has years of runway ahead of it with these changes, assuming things don’t get even bleaker, according to TechCrunch.

The Web3 leaders have so much sincere conviction too:

Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) @dfinzer

I have immense conviction in the NFT space & in OpenSea’s role in it. During this winter, we’ll see an explosion in innovation across the ecosystem. And with the changes we’ve made, we’re in a strong position to continue driving the space forward.

Devin has been CEO of OpenSea for nearly 5 years. Hopefully Chris Dixon tutored him well.

Their Series B was led by a16z, who has invested in multiple NFT platforms. All is always golden on the other side for NFTs.

OpenSea, is one of if not the largest NFT marketplaces around in 2022.

As for reasoning behind the decision, Finzer cited so-called crypto winter—an industry term to describe cyclical downturns—and the macroeconomy. It’s hard to blame just Bitcoin’s price doing down, but there you have it. All Ponzi schemes have someone pulling the strings.

After 11 furious months, demand for NFTs is practically nil all of a sudden.

Opps! How did that happen? Crypto Winter alert.

Thanks for reading!