OpenSea Lays Off about 20 percent of its Staff

OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer twitted that his NFT marketplace is laying off about 20 percent of its employees.

According to The Verge, 230 employees will stay in the company, bringing the total number of the company staff before the layoff to 288 people. Finzer, however, did not specify the exact number of employees the company fired.

Until recently, OpenSea has been the leader in the NFT world and in February received an additional $300 million in funding with a valuation of $13.3 billion The marketplace based its business model on earning a 2.5 percent commission on trades, which sharply dropped after the recent cryptomarket crash. In his letter Finzer referred to this as "crypto winter" which coincided with "broad macroeconomic instability."

Trying to appease the employees facing the perspective of being laid off, Finzer wrote:

For those leving us, we'll be  providing generous severance, healthcare coverage into 2023, and accelerated equity vestin for those who haven't hit the cliff. We'll also be helping with job placement and opening our personal networks to support them however we can.

Finzer says these changes will give the company up to five years’ worth of runway if this “crypto winter” continues.