Do you still remember Ghozali, who suddenly became successful thanks to NFTs of his selfie photos? Almost two years have passed, and the platform where Ghozali sold his works, Opensea, is currently undergoing a reduction of 50% of its employees.

The prominent NFT pioneer has confirmed the termination of employment (layoffs) for a number of its staff. However, the company is not willing to disclose the exact number of employees affected by this policy. Currently, the estimated number of Opensea employees is around 115.

A spokesperson from Opensea stated, "Currently, we are undergoing significant organizational and operational changes, in line with our focus on building a more advanced and better version of Opensea." This statement was quoted from Decrypt on Monday, November 6, 2023.

One of the founders, Devin Finzer, also explained the layoffs. Opensea's CEO stated that the layoffs were taken to launch the company into the next generation, known as Opensea 2.0. He explained that the company aims to be a market leader rather than merely following trends. Opensea 2.0 is promised to bring substantial improvements to their products.

"We want to move quickly, improve quality, and have the confidence to make more meaningful bets. Currently, we are shifting our team's focus to Opensea 2.0, with significant improvements in our products, including core technology, reliability, speed, quality, and user experience," he clarified.

Employees affected by the layoffs will receive severance pay for four months. Additionally, they will also receive healthcare and mental health support for six months, as well as accelerated equity grants.

In July 2022, Opensea also reduced its workforce by 57 employees. At that time, the company cited cost-cutting in the midst of declining digital asset transactions as the reason.

The NFT market has indeed begun to lose its popularity since the middle of last year, in parallel with the decline in cryptocurrency asset prices in the market. This development also coincided with economic issues such as high inflation, the threat of recession, and rising interest rates. All these factors have made investors more cautious in investing in risky assets.