OpenSea Lays Off 20% of Staff

NFT marketplace OpenSea joins prominent crypto companies in cutting staff

article-image

Blockworks Exclusive Art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Devin Finzer says OpenSea will still have five years of runway
  • “The reality is that we have entered an unpreceded combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability.”

Co-founder and CEO of NFT marketplace OpenSea Devin Finzer announced on Twitter today that the company will be downsizing its staff by 20%.

“Each of the people leaving has played a critical role in OpenSea’s journey,” Finzer wrote. “The reality is that we have entered an unpreceded combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn.

OpenSea says that it will provide its laid-off employees with “generous severance, healthcare coverage in 2023, and accelerated equity vesting for those who haven’t hit their cliff.” Finzer noted he also plans to help departing staff with their job search through personal networks where possible.

The layoffs will place OpenSea in a position to maintain five years of runway through a crypto winter, according to Finzer. 

“With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we’re in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet…Winter is our time to build,” he wrote.

OpenSea joins a slew of prominent crypto companies scaling back headcounts during the bear market. 

The start of June saw crypto exchange Gemini let go of 100 employees — an estimated 10% of its staff — alongside Singaporean-based Crypto.com, which cut 5% of its workforce, a 260 headcount reduction. Weeks later, BlockFi shared the news that it will be slashing staff by 20%, and Coinbase announced it would lay off 18% of its employees. 

There had been indications that the most vulnerable times in crypto were over, earmarked by venture capital firms trickling money back into the space. OpenSea’s layoffs may suggest that the crypto winter is far from over.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Bluefin possibly stands at an inflection point. The token is near an all-time low yet the protocol’s spot volume market share and derivatives exchange usage have been increasing month over month since its November launch. Given its current market position and the upcoming upgrades (for both Bluefin and SUI), there may be upside potential before the increased supply growth in December. However, strong opposition from existing competitors (like Cetus and Suilend), as well as new entrants (like Aftermath), pose key challenges to Bluefin’s medium-term success.

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”

article-image

Introducing garbled circuits for enhanced privacy and regulatory compliance

article-image

Ross Ulbricht was a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, powered by Bitcoin

article-image

Solana validators can reap benefits including payments, votes and community clout

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users

article-image

According to a legal filing, Galaxy Digital helped boost the price of LUNA while quietly selling its tokens