NFT marketplace Magic Eden announces layoffs amid Solana’s 85% price dip

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Non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden has become the latest company in the blockchain industry to announce staff cuts, laying off 22 people amid the ongoing bear market.

The company’s CEO, Jack Lu, announced the layoffs on social media this week.

🧵 Today is a sad day at Magic Eden.

As part of a company-wide restructuring, we have made the difficult decision to part ways with 22 teammates. Nothing about this decision takes away from the talent, hardwork and dedication of this incredible group of people. pic.twitter.com/2LAGfK9dMV

— Jack Lu (@0xLeoInRio) February 14, 2023

While Magic Eden has not been spared by the bear market, which has claimed its fair share of victims in the digital asset industry, it’s been dealt an even heavier blow by the collapse of Solana. The project, once hailed by its proponents as the future of blockchain networks, has lost 85% of its value in the past year.

Solana had close ties to Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, who faces over 100 years in prison if convicted of his crimes. SBF once called Solana “the next Bitcoin,” but a series of outages in 2022 proved that it clearly wasn’t.

With Solana under siege, Magic Eden made a move to expand its presence beyond the network and integrated Polygon and Ethereum NFTs. While this allowed it to compete with the likes of OpenSea, the recent layoffs prove that this wasn’t enough.

“We are deeply grateful to these folks. Each of them has contributed immensely to Magic Eden over the last year. We will be honoring them & their contributions with the utmost care and respect,” Lu stated while announcing the layoffs.

The company, which was exploited by hackers last month, pledged to offer a two months’ severance package to the laid-off workers. It will also provide healthcare for another six months and work with job placement companies to move them on to other opportunities.

Despite the layoffs, Magic Eden “remains strongly capitalized with a long runway even in today’s bear market. Many of our products are entering new stages of growth, and we will make it our utmost priority to support these products with the strongest teams,” the CEO added.

Magic Eden joins other NFT marketplaces that have announced layoffs in the past year, including market leader OpenSea and SuperRare.

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