The oldest NFT marketplace on Ethereum, OpenSea is reducing staff as part of a “2.0 strategy” emphasizing dependability, community, and product.
On November 3, OpenSea CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer revealed layoffs in a thread on X, a site that was initially Twitter. According to Finzer’s essay, a reevaluation of OpenSea’s “operating culture, product, and tech from the ground up” led to the decision.
As part of “OpenSea 2.0,” the digital collectible trade center is expanding its market dominance in the non-fungible token (NFT) space with this move. The choice affected about half of the workforce. The creator and CEO of OpenSea, Devin Finzer, stated:
“We will change how we operate – shifting to a smaller team with a direct connection to users. So today, we’re saying goodbye to a number of OpenSea teammates. This is the most difficult part of this change. These folks played a key role in getting us to this point and I’m incredibly thankful for their contributions.”
Finzer’ address finished with salutes for the departed Opensea staffers. The CEO remarked, “Others would be lucky to hire them.” The announcement was made just hours after OpenSea debuted its pro version on Polygon, an L2 network.
It also supported cross-chain swaps, enabling NFT users to access multichain experiences from a single platform. OpenSea’s updates come after a tumultuous time following the conviction of former head of product Nathanial Christain for insider trading under pretenses of fraud and money laundering.
Approximately two months after OpenSea stopped enforcing royalties, well-known NFT authorities like Bored Ape Yacht Club and artists like Yuga Labs considered advertising their blockchain collectible on other marketplaces.
