OpenSea, one of the pioneering and prominent nonfungible token (NFT) marketplaces, has announced layoffs as it undergoes a restructuring process to build a more streamlined and improved version of the platform.
Co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer shared the news on X (formerly Twitter), explaining that OpenSea is launching OpenSea 2.0 with a smaller team. This marks the second round of layoffs for OpenSea, with the first occurring in July 2022, when 20% of the workforce was let go due to the crypto market’s challenges at the time. Back then, OpenSea had around 230 employees.
A spokesperson from OpenSea confirmed the organizational changes, mentioning that approximately 50% of employees across various functions would be affected by the restructuring. Notably, the number of middle managers is expected to be reduced. OpenSea is committed to providing support to those affected by the layoffs, offering four-month severance packages, accelerated equity vesting, and six months of continued healthcare and mental healthcare coverage.
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— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) November 3, 2023
OpenSea is making some big changes today to focus on the next version of our product.
OpenSea, which launched in 2017, initially gained prominence in the NFT space when the concept of NFTs was still in its early stages of adoption. The platform operates similarly to popular online marketplaces like eBay and Etsy but deals exclusively in Ether, a cryptocurrency on the Ethereum blockchain.
The NFT market, which was characterized by explosive growth and high valuations in 2021, has faced significant challenges, with many collectible NFTs seeing declines in value. As a result, OpenSea is adapting its approach to align with the evolving landscape of NFT use cases. Tokenizing assets, managing identities, and handling legal documents have become more prominent NFT applications.
In August, OpenSea faced criticism from the NFT community when it announced the retirement of its operator filter feature. This feature allowed creators to blacklist marketplaces that did not enforce royalty payments. Yuga Labs, the creator of popular NFT series like the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, began to reduce its usage of OpenSea’s Seaport marketplace smart contract in response to this decision.
Despite the ongoing changes and restructuring, OpenSea remains committed to its existing products and will iteratively test OpenSea 2.0 in a public setting. As part of this evolution, the company is actively recruiting new talent, with 12 open positions listed on LinkedIn. These positions offer starting salaries ranging from $90,000 to $270,000, reflecting OpenSea’s ongoing growth and development in the NFT space.
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