Michael Rubin, executive chairman of sports goods behemoth Fanatics, with Mike Novogratz, CEO of Galaxy Digital, and businessman and investor Gary Vaynerchuk, established Candy Digital in June 2021. At the time, it was stated that Fanatics was the primary owner and would use its current customers to advertise Candy.
Candy Digital is the most recent NFT-focused company to experience reductions in recent months as the business has lost substantial momentum due to a general fall in the cryptocurrency world and broader macroeconomic unrest. Since the beginning of the year, NFT sales have declined significantly. The overall trading volume in October was 87% lower than it was in January.
Candy began operations with the authorized Major League Baseball license and has since released different collections based on the league and its teams. Since then, the company has released more sports licenses, such as a deal with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), every NASCAR team, and a number of collegiate players.
One of Candy's main competitors in the sports NFT market, Dapper Labs, which produces NBA Top Shot and NFL All Day, lay off around 22% of its staff earlier this month, but it's not clear how many individuals were impacted. In July, OpenSea, the top NFT marketplace worldwide, laid off 20% of its workforce.