The NFT (Non-fungible token) trading volumes have been observing a fall, despite Bitcoin and Ethereum posting positive gains. This is because OpenSea has planned to downsize its workforce by 20%.
According to data published from The Block Research, the NFT trading volumes have witnessed a decline of 74% from May to June this year. It stated that the NFT trading volumes across the marketplaces hit $4 billion in May this year. However, in June, the figure saw a dramatic plunge, reaching a relative dunk of merely $1.04 billion in trading volumes.
This fall of 74% features the greatest sink in the monthly trading volumes of the non-fungible token (NFT). If we compare the decline to the second largest monthly fall of NFT, we see that this time the fall has been more than 30% of the second largest fall. Between February and March this year, the NFT trading volumes dipped 48%. This was the biggest decline in the NFT's monthly trading volumes, until the May-June report.
Source: The Block Crypto Data
Even today, OpenSea leads the latest NFT trading volumes. However, it is planning to downsize due to the ongoing crypto winter. Unsurprisingly, OpenSea, the top marketplace for NFT dominated the monthly market trading volumes for June. With $696 million, it accounted for 67% of the entire trading volume for June.
Despite this, we cannot deny that despite owning the lion's share of NFT trading volumes, OpenSea is not immune to the conditions arising due to the recent winter in crypto assets and NFTs. This is why OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace across the globe, has recently announced its intention to downsize its workforce by up to 20%.
OpenSea chief executive officer Devin Finzer took to Twitter, explaining,
To add to it, Finzer assured of the present stance of OpenSea. He stated:
"The changes we're making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (5 years at the current volume), and give us high confidence that we will only have to go through this process once."
Finzer mentioned that he had faith in OpenSea's track record amidst the bear market in the crypto world. He expressed his trust in how OpenSea featured preparedness and handled the situation at every step. The CEO stated that the funds generated in the past provide a robust balance sheet for OpenSea to fall back on.
As of now, OpenSea has not disclosed exactly how many employees would be facing termination. However, the company plans to treat them with care. The company will provide generous severance packages to these employees. It will also offer robust healthcare coverage until 2023. Along with it, OpenSea has also promised to offer 'accelerated equity vesting' to these workers who are being terminated.
The Block, in its report, mentioned that the active employee base of OpenSea at present is around 230 individuals.