In a surprising move, OpenSea, a leading cryptocurrency company and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, announced on November 3 that it was laying off employees while announcing an ambitious plan to launch OpenSea 2.0 with a more modern team. This development comes as the platform aims to adapt and evolve in the ever-changing NFT landscape. Meanwhile, the price of an NFT interestingly rose in response to the company’s downsizing announcement. Here are the details…
OpenSea lays off half of its employees
Founded in 2017 in the early days of the NFT revolution, OpenSea has become a major player in the digital collectibles market. Similar to eBay and Etsy, the platform allowed users to buy and sell NFTs by accepting payments in Ether (ETH). However, recent challenges in the NFT market have prompted the company to make significant changes. This isn’t the first time OpenSea has faced workforce reductions. In July 2022, during a period the crypto community dubbed “crypto winter,” OpenSea laid off 20% of its employees, reducing its headcount from 230 to a smaller, more agile team. Co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced the company’s latest decision on X. His statement included the following statements:
Today, we are making significant organizational and operational changes as we focus on building a more agile and ultimately better version of OpenSea. We are extremely grateful for the contributions of OpenSea leavers and support them with a robust package of both financial and moral support.
Support is given to those who are laid off
The company announced that approximately 50% of its employees will be affected and the reduction will specifically target middle management positions. Terminating employees will be provided with four-month severance packages, accelerated stock vesting and six months of ongoing health and mental health support, demonstrating a commitment to caring for the workforce despite the changes. OpenSea’s move to restructure its operations aligns with the NFT market. The popularity of collectible NFTs peaked in 2021, but their uses have since expanded to include tokenizing assets, authenticating identities, and processing legal documents. This increased the demand in these areas.
OpenSea in particular received criticism from the NFT community when it deprecated its carrier filter feature that allowed creators to blacklist marketplaces that did not enforce their copyrights. This decision caused content creators such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs, known for their CryptoPunks NFT series, to reduce their use of OpenSea’s services. Devin Finzer expressed optimism for the future, saying, “As we rebuild, we will continue to support our existing products and iteratively test OpenSea 2.0 publicly.” The company also opened new job opportunities by listing 12 open positions on LinkedIn with competitive starting salaries ranging from $90,000 to $270,000.
Gemesis NFT rose with the news
In addition to these changes, OpenSea continues to make strategic moves. On November 4, data from Blur reported a significant 108% increase in the base price of the “Gemesis” NFT over a 24-hour period, with a 24-hour trading volume of 7.19 ETH. The current base price for this NFT series is 0.0226 ETH and there are 94,755 units in circulation. This development comes after OpenSea acquired NFT transaction aggregator Gem in April 2022 and then upgraded its “OpenSea Pro” brand earlier this year. Users who used Gem before March 31, 2023 can mint “Gemesis” NFTs for free. Some experts think that behind this rise is the announcement of OpenSea’s transition to version 2.0.