NFT Marketplace OpenSea Cuts 20% of Staff

Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea will lay off 20% of its headcount amid the crypto market downturn, according to a Thursday (July 14) Twitter post from CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer.

Finzer said “macroeconomic instability” was another contributing factor, due to an an “unprecedented” combination of both a crypto winter in the midst of wider, general instability. As such, he said the company had to start preparing for “the possibility of a prolonged downturn.”

The folks leaving us are smart, hardworking, mission-driven individuals who’ve played an immeasurable role in growing OpenSea and the NFT space to where we are today. We will miss them and they will forever be part of our story and community.

— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) July 14, 2022

In his post, Finzer said the layoffs would help the company get into a position to weather more years even if the crypto conditions stay dire.

Finzer said those who have been laid off from the company will get “generous severance, healthcare coverage into 2023 and accelerated equity vesting for those who haven’t hit their cliff.” He also said there would be an effort to help them with job placement.

There are multiple other companies that have laid off staff in order to cope with the economic volatility, including Coinbase, Banxa, Bullfish, Celsius, Genesis, Crypto.com, BlockFi, Bitpanda and 2TM. OpenSea has made other changes, too, including moving to Seaport protocol to help cut gas fees.

PYMNTS wrote earlier this year that OpenSea had ceased allowing the Sand Vegas Casino Club to trade Gambling Apes NFTs. The company said Alabama and Texas regulators considered them to be unregistered securities.

Read more: OpenSea Stops Gambling Apes NFT Trading From Sand Vegas Casino Club

Gambling Apes NFT holders were still able to participate in the profit sharing from the proceeds of the casinos. The report said the team was working with lawyers in those states in “good faith” to help out with the next steps.

The report noted that the team plans to work along with laws and regulations, though it said it hadn’t been subject to any registration requirements, nor been contacted by any government organization about the registration.

Prior to that, Sand Vegas had forecasted proceeds of around $24,480 from the Gambler NFTs.

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