OpenSea NFT marketplace to cut around 20% of staff to weather ongoing 'crypto winter'

CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer announced that the layoffs would be taking place to help the company survive 'broad macroeconomic instability.'

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The NFT and cryptocurrency market has been going through a rough time as of late. As the crypto market has gone through difficult times, hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost and major lenders and hedge funds have folded or gone into bankruptcy. OpenSea is one of the most notable NFT marketplaces in the crypto scene, but even it hasn’t avoided the stark losses hitting the market right now. It has been announced that OpenSea will be laying off a chunk of its staff to survive what has been described as a “crypto winter.”

OpenSea CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer announced the company’s decision to layoff 20 percent of its staff via his personal Twitter. In his message, which was also posted to an employee message board, Devin claimed the cut was necessary for the company to survive tight-belted times ahead.

“The reality is that we have entered an unprecedented combination of a crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn,” Finzer said.

Devin Finzer's message to OpenSea employees regarding a 20 percent layoff.
Devin Finzer posted the attached message in OpenSea employee channels, announcing the company would lay off 20% of its workforce to sustain itself through a "crypto winter."
Source: Devin Finzer

Finzer would go on to explain that the workforce cut at OpenSea should go on to help the company maintain life through not only the current slouch in the market, but also future “crypto winters” as well.

“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),” Finzer continued. “And give us high confidence that we will only have to go through this process once.”

Recently, the crypto scene has seen a multitude of major failures. The TerraUSD stablecoin and, by extension, Luna saw massive crashes with Luna value dropping to an absolute $0. Meanwhile, crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a $670 million loan, which left crypto lender Voyager Digital to pursue bankruptcy.

While OpenSea has been a major force in NFT trade, it wasn’t strong enough to not face its own issues with ongoing crypto market problems. The group promises it won’t happen again, but time will tell as we continue to cover the cryptocurrency market for further news and updates.

Senior News Editor

TJ Denzer is a player and writer with a passion for games that has dominated a lifetime. He found his way to the Shacknews roster in late 2019 and has worked his way to Senior News Editor since. Between news coverage, he also aides notably in livestream projects like the indie game-focused Indie-licious, the Shacknews Stimulus Games, and the Shacknews Dump. You can reach him at tj.denzer@shacknews.com and also find him on Twitter @JohnnyChugs.

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