OpenSea Decided to Reduce the Number of Employees
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OpenSea's co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer used his Twitter account to disclose that his company was laying off up to 20% of its employees. In a long message conveyed to employees, the company's CEO blamed "an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability" for the layoffs.
OpenSea's decision reflects the dire state of the crypto market, whose combined value has declined by more than two-thirds compared to last year's peak. That OpenSea, which is the largest NFT market in the world by volume, was cutting jobs offers a stark realization that no company is safe from the downdraft of the so-called crypto winter.
In recent months, many crypto companies have made similar decisions. For example, Gemini, Crypto.com, BlockFi, and Coinbase reduced headcount. According to one estimate, crypto companies reduced the number of employees by 1,700 in June alone.
Nevertheless, not every company in the crypto industry is reducing staff. Exchange giants Binance, Kraken as well as FTX have each reaffirmed plans to add more employees in the coming months.
OpenSea and Compass Mining
As mentioned earlier, OpenSea isn't the only company that is struggling to cope with problems. Recently, Compass Mining also made an important announcement.
The company decided to reduce the total number of employees by 15%. It announced its decision to reduce its workforce in an attempt to cope with market conditions just a week after the resignation of Whit Gibbs, the company's CEO, and chief finance officer, Jodie Fisher.
Importantly, chief technology officer Paul Gosker and chief mining officer Thomas Heller work as interim co-presidents and CEOs of Compass Mining. Gosker and Heller penned a letter to staff, investors, and the wider community outlining the company's road ahead.
While 15% of its force workforce faces difficult layoffs, the company's acting CEOs also announced that senior employees and its executive team would take significant pay cuts of up to 50%. Its website currently displays its workforce — with 78 individuals making up the current team.
The above-mentioned company began operations in January 2021 as a mining hosting service. It is worth noting that the company has sold over half a billion dollars of mining equipment. Compass Mining currently operates more than 30,000 mining machines for its customers.
Binance has its own position regarding the situation. In June, its CEO Changpeng Zhao made an interesting announcement. He announced that Binance plans to hire 2,000 employees. His announcement of the hiring of 2,000 employees goes in the opposite direction of the staff cuts that the other companies in the sector are making due to the crypto crash.
As you already know, other crypto exchanges are doing the complete opposite of Binance. In June, Coinbase announced the cut of 1,100 jobs (about 18% of its total workforce.)