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Crypto Winter Forces NFT Marketplace OpenSea To Lay Off 20% Of Work Force

The New York City-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea stated on Thursday that it has reduced expenses by 20% by laying off 20% of its personnel in reaction to a protracted downturn in the markets for digital assets. The emergence of cryptocurrencies in 2021 gave rise to a new generation of wealthy cryptocurrency speculators, which caused OpenSea’s sales to increase more quickly. The largest NFT market in the world is OpenSea.

The nascent market for NFTs, on the other hand, has seen a sharp dip over the last few months as cryptocurrency prices have plunged and investors’ risk tolerance has decreased in response to increasing inflation, central bank rate hikes, and concerns about a recession.

“The reality is that we have reached an unparalleled mix of a crypto winter and global macroeconomic turbulence, and we need to equip the business for the likelihood of a protracted depression,” said the firm’s chief executive officer, Devin Finzer, in a tweet.

On the Ethereum network, OpenSea’s non-fungible token (NFT) sales volume plunged to $700 million in June from $2.6 billion in May and a high of almost $5 billion in January. From the high of $2.6 billion the previous month, this was a considerable decline. The assets known as NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are created on the blockchain to represent ownership of digital files like as text and images.

Because of the job losses, Finzer claimed that the company could continue to expand at its present pace for five years, even under a number of fictitious unfavorable economic circumstances. Around a month ago, the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it will be laying off around 1,100 people, or 18% of its workforce.

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