NFT marketplace SuperRare says it is laying off 30% of its staff

The non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare has reduced its staff by thirty percent, according to one announcement made by CEO John Crain on January 6. The company is succumbing to the suffering after a prolonged crypto winter that has cooled down several market sectors.

Crain said he accepts full responsibility for this blunder and blamed rapid expansion and excessive recruiting as the reasons for the staff decline. He wrote:

To course correct, we have 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.

John Crain

They recognize that there is still a significant amount of innovation and change yet to come for Web3, non-fungible tokens (NFT), crypto, decentralized finance and governance, Crain added.

He acknowledges that they face challenges, but insists that there is a huge potential that has not yet been exploited as the company is still in the process of developing something completely new.

As a result of the volatile market conditions, SuperRare has scaled back its operations, joining the ranks of a growing number of other cryptocurrency organizations that have done the same. The number of employees at a number of cryptocurrency exchanges around the world was cut in April.

OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, let go of nearly twenty percent of its workforce, which was preceded by layoffs at crypto brokers, trading firms, payment processing companies, and Web3 game studios.

A little about SuperRare

Built on the Ethereum blockchain and introduced in 2018, SuperRare promises to cater to those who create works of art as well as collectors of non-fungible tokens.

Tokens based on the blockchain linked to digital and physical material can serve as proof of ownership, legitimacy or participation in a group.

Since its inception, a number of prominent figures in the sports and entertainment industry have moved their digital art projects to the NFT platform.

In March 2021, SuperRare successfully secured a $9 million Series A funding round, led by Velvet Sea Ventures and 1confirmation. In addition, well-known investors such as Mark Cuban, Marc Benioff and Ashton Kutcher participated in the financing round.