Defunct token marketplace SuperRare lays off 30% of staff

SuperRare Labs, the firm behind the non-fungible token marketplace SuperRare, has become the latest casualty of falling NFT markets as CEO John Crain announced on Friday that the marketplace would cut around 30% of its staff.

Crain tweeted a message he sent to employees on the company’s Slack that the company “grew with the market” when it was booming and that the “aggressive growth was unsustainable” now that the markets are faltering.

I have some tough news to share: pic.twitter.com/iLDKqgyhQa

— SuperRare John 💎 (@SuperRareJohn) 6 January 2023

“[W]e overworked, and I take full ownership of this mistake,” Crain said. “To course-correct, we’ve made the difficult decision to size our team, to ensure that SuperRare Labs will be able to continue to serve our community of artists, collectors and curators while remaining the destination for the best crypto in the world.”

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a type of blockchain-based crypto-asset that can represent the ownership of intangible items such as digital art, music, videos, video game items, concert tickets, and more. These tokens of ownership can be bought, sold and traded for cryptocurrency, which in turn can be traded for money.

The NFT market was explosive in previous years, rising to huge heights in late 2021 along with the cryptocurrency markets. The market rose to $41 billion in value in 2021, up from $100 million in 2020. However, the advent of “crypto winter,” which crashed the markets in 2022, caused the markets to plummet. A Reuters report showed that NFT markets fell 60% during the third quarter of 2022 from the second quarter, to $3.4 billion.

SuperRare is not the only NFT marketplace to be hit by layoffs during 2022. It follows OpenSea, the largest marketplace by volume, which laid off 20% of its staff in July, and Dapper Labs, the developer of NFT marketplace NBA Top Shot , which laid off 22% of employees in November.

Cryptocurrency markets have also faced turmoil as prices continue to fall, which has also brought down major industry players. Just one week into 2023, several crypto companies have cut staff, including Silvergate Capital and crypto lender Genesis laying off 40% and 30% of their staff respectively. Crypto exchange Huobi also cut 20% of its staff, citing poor markets.

“We know there is a lot of innovation and transformation coming for Web3, NFTs, crypto, decentralized finance and governance,” Crain said. “We face headwinds, yes – but an incredible untapped opportunity remains as we continue to build something entirely new: a global digital art renaissance that is transparent, fair and accessible to anyone anywhere in the world.”

Crain added that the company would do everything it could to help employees affected by layoffs find new opportunities and support them in the industry.

Image: Pixabay