Solana's Leading NFT Marketplace Announced Layoff of 22

The NFT marketplace cited the reason for laying off its workforce as part of a restructuring.

Late on this Monday, Magic Eden — a leading NFT marketplace on Solana announced the layoff of 22 teammates. The company cited restructuring as the wider crypto economy continues to cope with harsh market conditions.

🧵 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

The Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Magic Eden, Jack Lu, made the layoff announcement via his Twitter account. He wrote “As part of a company-wide restructuring, they 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.”

Lu further said “they are deeply grateful to these folks as all of them have contributed immensely to Magic Eden over the last year.” He also said that before sharing this news publicly, he personally made the interaction with each person.

Lu also shared his weekly plans, for the week ahead. They will focus on helping the people who are transitioning from Magic Eden. And then , they will regroup, refocus, and move forward.

According to DappRadar, Magic Eden launched in September 2021, and it quickly rose to become one of the Solana blockchain’s most popular marketplaces for NFTs. Last year in September, the company expanded into the Ethereum ecosystem, rolling out support for Bored Ape Yacht Club, Pudgy Penguins, and Otherside. Magic Eden is pushing its boundaries on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon.

Just fifteen months ago they were searching for a product-market fit on Solana- said Lu. Since then their business has grown significantly and the nature of their challenges has evolved. Magic Eden’s focus areas for 2023 having “the growing traction across chains, developing services for NFT creators, and exploring new use cases like rewards and social experiences.”

Due to these priorities for this year, Magic Eden had to take a hard look at what structure and roles are needed. To be clear-eyed, addressing their strategic goals requires making changes to their team. In order to reach their goals, the Magic Eden team must encompass certain types of new skills and expertise without losing momentum.

Jack Lu also mentioned that to help all of these individuals, Magic Eden will offer two months’ severance, remove the 1-year vesting cliff and extend the exercise period to 1 year. The company also provides healthcare for another 6 months and a year’s subscription to Headspace.

It must be noted that since the beginning of 2023, various prominent crypto companies, including Huobi, Coinbase, Blockchain.com, Crypto.com, and Luno, have also announced layoffs.