NFT platform Metaplex lays off employees, citing the Solana downturn

by James · December 2, 2022

The FTX infestation has had devastating effects on the Solana ecosystem. With Metaplex employees joining the list of those directly affected by FTX Fallout.

Metaplex is a decentralized protocol for creating, trading and using digital assets on the Solana blockchain. According to the official website, over 22 million NFTs worth over $3.6 billion have been minted using Metaplex Studio

Layoffs are making headlines this year, and Metaplex studio is yet another company that has to take this extreme measure. Stephen Hess, co-founder and CEO of the Metaplex studio, announced on Twitter that they have decided to part ways with several of their team members.

The CEO says that their treasury was not directly affected by the FTX collapse, but the indirect impact on the market is significant and requires them to take a more conservative approach going forward.

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Solana is worst affected by FTX Fallout

FTX and Alameda research owned 58 million Solana (SOL) tokens, which represented almost 11% of the total supply. As things developed one after the other about the now bankrupt exchange FTX, the price of SOL had a vertical decline.

The token rejected from the resistance at $38.21 on November 5 and has been in a continuous decline since then. After falling nearly 65%, SOL is trading between $11.82 to $15.

The impact on the Solana ecosystem

Not only the price of the token SOL, but the Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Solana ecosystem is also greatly affected. According to data from DefiLlama, TVL is down almost 70% since November 6th. The Solana ecosystem had a TVL of $1 billion, but due to the FTX fallout, it currently stands at nearly $300 million.

The Solana Foundation had over $1 million in FTX, held $3.24 million worth of FTX shares, and invested $3.43 million in the FTX token (FTT). Therefore, the FTX fallout is a major blow to the entire Solana ecosystem.

However, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, tweeted that they have 30 months of runway left in the treasury at the current burn rate.

Runway is in $, ~30 months at current burn. Learned our lessons in 2018

— toly 🇺🇸 (@aeyakovenko) 9 November 2022

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