NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced major layoffs as crypto assets are faced with falling prices amid the ongoing crypto winter.

According to the company’s Co-founder and CEO, Devin Finzer, around 20% of OpenSea’s workforce will be made redundant. Though the exact number of people is still unknown, the company has said its workforce now stands at around 230 people.

At the start of the year, the company, the largest NFT marketplace in the sector, was valued at around $13 billion when it received $300 million of series C funding. At the time, the company had around 90 employees, with the OpenSea using the funds to grow its customer service team.

“We’ve been through winter before, and we built this company with the cyclicality of crypto in mind,” Finzer said in a tweeted statement.

“Nevertheless, the reality is that we have entered an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability, and we need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn.”

Today is a hard day for OpenSea, as we’re letting go of ~20% of our team. Here’s the note I shared with our team earlier this morning: pic.twitter.com/E5k6gIegH7

— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) July 14, 2022

After hitting record highs in 2021, 2022 has seen a massive reversal of fortunes for cryptocurrencies and the companies built on them. Since that peak, the combined value of the broader crypto market is estimated to have shrunk by over two thirds.

Crypto exchange Coinbase made similar layoffs to OpenSea recently, laying off 20% of its staff as its stock price and market share dwindled in the face of the crypto winter. Gemini, BlockFi and Crypto.com have also cut staff.

Major crypto lender Celsius was the latest casualty claimed by falling prices, with the business filing for bankruptcy this week. The company’s founder Alex Mashinsky blamed poor investments and unanticipated loses for a $1.2bn gap between its assets and liabilities.

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Late last month, cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) was also faced with liquidation due to the risk of defaulting on loans worth several hundred million dollars. Once, it had managed more than $18 billion in assets, but falling prices reversed its fortunes.

And in a Darwinian moment for cryptocurrencies, twin tokens Terra and Luna cryptocurrencies lost over 99% of their value in a matter of days. They went from $64 on May 9th to $0.11 on May 12th, reducing their market cap from over $40 billion to just $500 million.

Since peaking at around $64,000 in November 2021, Bitcoin is now hovering around the $20,000-mark, prices unseen since December 2020, right before the cryptocurrency shot to new highs.

And a recent report from financial advice firm Finder warned that prices are unlikely to stray above $25,000 this year and may even dip below $14,000.

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