NFT Marketplace OpenSea Announces Staff Reductions

The NFT platform OpenSea, which facilitates the trading of digital art collectibles like Bored Apes and Pudgy Penguins, has reduced its workforce by half due to the ongoing decline in the floor prices of these digital collectibles. OpenSea’s CEO, Devin Finzer, made this announcement on Friday via a tweet.

These substantial layoffs may have impacted approximately 50% of OpenSea’s employees, as reported by the crypto news outlet Decrypt earlier on the same day. This decision to downsize comes as OpenSea is gearing up to launch an updated marketplace called OpenSea 2.0, all while NFT prices continue to decrease.

“We’re in the process of building a new foundation that will allow us to innovate more rapidly, and we will have some exciting developments to share with you soon,” Finzer mentioned in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter). “We are going to change our operational approach by transitioning to a smaller team with a closer connection to our users.”

OpenSea had previously cut its workforce by approximately 20% in July 2022, leaving the company with 230 employees, according to a report by The Information. The exact number of employees before this recent round of layoffs is not clear.

Additionally, there is currently no detailed information available about how OpenSea 2.0 will differ from its previous version. Finzer did not provide specifics regarding the new platform’s planned features or a timeline for its release.

As of now, OpenSea has not responded to CoinDesk’s request for comment on the matter.

According to a report by Nansen, prominent NFTs from well-known or “blue-chip” collections experienced a more than 25% drop in their floor prices in August. The floor price of an NFT represents the lowest price at which a digital art piece from a specific collection or drop can be sold.