Biggest NFT marketplace OpenSea sacks staff as ‘crypto winter’ arrives

(Getty Images)

OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace, has sacked 20 per cent of its staff in yet another sign of the “crypto winter”.

The company was once a hero of the frenzy for non-fungible tokens, serving as the marketplace for “Bored Ape Yacht Club” pictures and other famous NFT artworks.

But it is now preparing for a “crypto winter” that would allow it to survive even amid a downturn that lasted for five years, its chief executive Devin Finzer announced on Twitter.

OpenSea is just the latest major company that had become symbolic of the rise of cryptocurrency and other technologies associated with “Web3” to be hit by problems. It comes just days after Celsius, one of the biggest crypto lenders, filed for bankruptcy.

Sales of NFTs have plunged dramatically since a buzz at the start of the year that saw digital artworks sell for tens of millions of dollars. Both prices and trading volumes have collapsed, since.

That happened at the same time as the more traditional crypto market dramatically collapsed. Last month, markets fell substantially from their peak late last year, with investors losing trillions of dollars.

At the time, analysts warned about a crypto winter that could take years for the market to recover from – if it were to come back around at all.

But Mr Finzer insisted that the downturn would be temporary and that it would represent a “huge opportunity”.

“During this winter, I expect that we’ll see an explosion of innovation and utility across NFTs,” he wrote, and said that the market for digital artwork would become the largest on the planet. He said uncertainty in the global economy should make it more urgent to build new kinds of technology.