On Friday, SuperRare Labs, the firm that operates the NFT marketplace SuperRare, became the latest crypto currency player to undertake employment layoffs by stating that it will reduce the number of employees working for it by 30 percent.
The announcement (1) was made by John Crain, the CEO of SuperRare, who tweeted out a message that he had previously written to staff in Slack.
Crain stated that he takes "full ownership of this mistake" and blamed the reduction in staff on the aggressive development and excessive hiring as the grounds for the decision.
I have some tough news to share: pic.twitter.com/iLDKqgyhQa
— SuperRare John 💎 (@SuperRareJohn) January 6, 2023
"To correct course, we've made the difficult decision to rightsize our team," he wrote. "This will ensure that SuperRare Labs will be able to continue serving our community of artists, collectors, and curators while remaining the destination for the best cryptoart in the world. To correct course, we've made the difficult decision to rightsize our team."
On the Ethereum blockchain, SuperRare is a social network introduced in 2018 to connect art makers and collectors of NFTs. Tokens based on the blockchain linked to digital and physical content might serve as proof of ownership, authenticity, or participation in a group. NFTs are also known as blockchain tokens.
SuperRate Has a Happening NFT MArketplace
Since its inception, several prominent figures in the sports and entertainment industries have moved their digital art projects to the platform known as SuperRare.
In March 2021, SuperRare completed a Series A investment round, which raised $9 million and was headed by Velvet Sea Ventures and the cryptocurrency fund 1confirmation. Mark Cuban, Ashton Kutcher's Sound Ventures, & SamsungNext were among the investors who contributed to the funding round.
Hip-hop artist and NFT collector Snoop Dogg debuted an NFT partnership with multimedia artist Coldie on SuperRare in November of that same year at Miami Art Week. The iconic musician Madonna collaborated with the contemporary digital artist Beeple to release a new NFT series on SuperRare in May of 2022.
Crain stated that SuperRare would assist employees laid off in transferring to new opportunities.
Although the news of the downsizing may make it seem as though things are looking bleak for the company, Crain made an effort in his email to employees to sound upbeat by emphasizing that there is still a great deal of innovation and revolution that is yet to come for Web3 and digital art.
"We are facing headwinds, yes; however, there remains an incredible uncaptured opportunity as we continue building something new: a global digital art renaissance that is transparent, fair, and that anyone can access from anywhere in the world," he added. "We are facing headwinds, yes."
Another Firm on the List
Only a few days into 2023, numerous crypto firms have already stated that they will be laying off employees. This is a direct result of the prolonged crypto winter and the contagion that resulted from the failure of Terra, Three Arrows Capital, and FTX in 2022.
The crypto currency investment firm Silvergate Capital laid off 40 percent of its workers, the crypto currency loan company Genesis laid off thirty percent, and the crypto currency exchange Huobi laid off 20 percent.
But layoffs aren't limited to the crypto currency industry; large internet companies like Amazon and Salesforce are also making cuts in staff as the state of the American economy remains dismal in the new year.
