OpenSea Slashes Staff by 50% as NFT Market Cools Down

OpenSea Cuts Staff

OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, has announced a major restructuring of its business as the demand for digital art collectibles declines. The company’s CEO, Devin Finzer, revealed on X (formerly Twitter) that OpenSea has laid off half of its staff and is working on a new version of its platform, dubbed OpenSea 2.0.

OpenSea, which hosts popular NFT collections such as Bored Apes and Pudgy Penguins, has been hit hard by the slump in the NFT market. According to Nansen, a blockchain analytics firm, the floor prices of prominent NFTs from well-known collections dropped by more than 25% in August. The Nansen NFT-500 index, which tracks the performance of 500 NFT projects, also plunged by 55% since the beginning of the year.

Finzer said that the company is building a new foundation to innovate faster and to have a direct connection with its users. He did not provide any details about the features or the launch date of OpenSea 2.0, but he promised to share some experiences soon.

This is not the first time that OpenSea has downsized its workforce. In July 2022, the company cut 20% of its staff, leaving it with 230 employees. It is unclear how many people were employed by OpenSea before the latest round of layoffs.