Ebay Expands Into NFT and Web3 Space With New Job Openings

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Crypto firms cut nearly 3,000 jobs in January despite Bitcoin’s rise

January 31, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bear Market

It was a tough month for crypto employees with at least 14 firms announcing staff reductions in January.

Crypto companies tightened their purse strings in the first month of 2023, with at least 2,900 crypto staff cut loose across 14 crypto firms in January.

The latest firm to reportedly initiate a layoff is the crypto infrastructure provider Prime Trust which reduced its employee count by a third according to reports.

The reduction would equate to an estimated 100 or so staff cut as Prime had 312 employees on LinkedIn at the time of writing.

Other recent cuts over the last few days include 30 staff from the crypto platform Matrixport being let go according to a Jan. 27 Bloomberg report, while an earlier Jan. 23 report from The Information said roughly 100 staff were laid off from the crypto exchange Gemini.

The largest staff layoff for the month of January was initiated by crypto exchange Coinbase which reduced its headcount by around 950 employees on Jan. 10.

Its peer exchanges Crypto.com, Luno and Huobi trailed with reductions of around 500, 330 and 320 employees respectively.

Embattled crypto conglomerate Digital Currency Group (DCG) and its subsidiaries similarly saw significant layoffs with 485 workers sacked in January alone as the firm navigates a financial crisis.

The DCG-owned Luno saw the most layoffs, while DCG itself slashed 66 employees, its subsidiary lending platform Genesis cut 63 jobs and its asset management firm HQ Digital shuttered affecting 26 jobs.

Rounding off the list were the 200 members of staff let go by crypto bank Silvergate, the 110 employees cut from the Blockchain.com exchange and the 96 staff terminated from MetaMask’s parent company ConsenSys.

Meanwhile, 20 staff members were let go from the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace SuperRare.

These staff cuts came despite Bitcoin (BTC) performing strongly in the month, targeting nearly $25,000 as institutional demand has continued to increase.

However, the large-scale crypto industry layoffs were not in isolation. Around 48,000 people in January alone were let go from just four companies: Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce.

While some may believe there's more gloom ahead, crypto hedge fund Pantera Capital believes there’s never been a better time to start a blockchain company claiming bear markets provide “less noise and distraction from building.”

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GameStop to drop crypto efforts as Q3 losses near $95M

December 9, 2022 Coin Telegraph

GameStop to drop crypto efforts as Q3 losses near M

Coin Telegraph

The gaming company has stopped its cryptocurrency-related focuses but is seemingly still pushing ahead with its NFT and blockchain plans.

Gaming retailer GameStop says it will no longer focus any efforts on cryptocurrencies, after amounting $94.7 million in net losses in the third quarter and laying off staff from its digital assets department.

On a Dec. 7 earnings call GameStop CEO, Matt Furlong, said it “proactively minimized exposure to cryptocurrency” over the year and “does not currently hold a material balance of any token,” adding:

“Although we continue to believe there is long-term potential for digital assets in the gaming world, we have not and will not risk meaningful stockholder capital in this space.”

Earlier this year the company said it was looking at crypto, along with nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and Web3 applications, as avenues for growth calling these spaces "increasingly relevant for gamers of the future."

Going forward it will shift focus to collectibles, gaming and pre-owned items.

Its moves in the NFT space are still seemingly going ahead as it says its “also pursuing, and plan to continue to pursue, other business and strategic initiatives associated with digital assets and blockchain technology,” according to a Dec. 7 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Cointelegraph contacted GameStop to confirm that it would continue efforts on its NFT marketplace but did not receive a response.

GameStop has pushed numerous Web3-related products, the most recent being its NFT marketplace that went live on ImmutableX, an Ethereum layer-2 blockchain, on Oct. 31 following a July public beta.

Prior to its NFT marketplace, in May the company launched a beta self-custody crypto wallet and beta NFT marketplace on Loopring in March, Loopring is another Ethereum-based layer-2 protocol.

It also partnered with the now bankrupt crypto exchange FTX US in September aimed at bringing more customers to crypto and working together on e-commerce and online marketing initiatives. It ended ties with the exchange on Nov. 11 soon after it filed for bankruptcy.

It’s Q3 losses slightly narrowed compared to the second quarter however, which saw losses of $108.7 million. It’s also a year-on-year improvement for GameStop, which posted a $105.4 million loss in Q3 2021.

Staff cuts reportedly hit crypto department

On Dec. 5 GameStop cut multiple staff in its third round of layoffs for 2022 which Furlong confirmed in the earnings call.

Earlier reports suggested that the team working on the company's blockchain and NFT projects was the most impacted, however, Furlong did not specify where the staff cuts were concentrated during the call.

Earlier posts from people claiming to be former employees have shed some light. Daniel Williams, lead software engineer at GameStop wrote in a Dec. 5 LinkedIn post:

“Another big round of layoffs from GameStop currently in progress… E-commerce Product and Engineers... Lots of them.”

Other posts from those claiming to be affected by the cuts also appeared on LinkedIn at the time. Brandon Jenniges, a former iOS and blockchain engineer posted he “had a great time getting a deep dive into Ethereum and learning about many new things in the crypto space.”

“I and the rest of the mobile team were let go,” wrote former developer Christopher Fields.

In July, the company terminated its CFO Michael Recupero and a number of staff at its video game-focused magazine Game Informer.

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Nifty News: China’s lockdown protest NFTs emerge, Candy Digital cuts staff, and more

November 29, 2022 Coin Telegraph

BAYC

Two collections have appeared on NFT marketplace OpenSea depicting images and art related to the rare widespread protests in China over its lockdown policies.

China’s COVID-19 protests cemented as NFTs

Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) depicting the ongoing protests in China against the country’s tough zero-tolerance COVID-19 policy have found their way to the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

At least two collections have been created in November, the first is a Polygon (MATIC)-based collection called “Silent Speech” featuring 135 NFTs depicting images of protesters, signage, graffiti and even social media screenshots related to the ongoing protests up for auction starting at 0.01 Ether (ETH), or just under $11.50.

*A Silent Speech NFT titled “Beihang University” (translated) shows an image of multiple tealight candles within surgical masks. Candles are an often used symbol of remembrance.*

Another collection titled “Blank Paper Movement” of 36 Ethereum-based NFTs with a floor price of 10 ETH, or nearly $11,800, features a more artistic take as the images of the protests appears to be painted.

Holding a blank sheet of paper has emerged as a symbol representing the suppression of speech in the rare and widespread protests which have flared up across China since Nov. 14, starting with residents of Guangzhou, one of China’s biggest cities, tearing down police barricades in response to COVID-19 related measures.

Demonstrators in Beijing hold blank pieces of paper in a rally against the communist government.
This idea developed during a student movement by a group of high school students in HK. pic.twitter.com/jRmnQ50Mlz
— 鄉港 (@sabaocean) November 28, 2022

The protests intensified on Nov. 24 as a fire that day in a high-rise building in the northeastern city of Urumqi killed 10 people.

Some Chinese internet users believe residents weren’t able to escape due to extreme lockdown measures which have included authorities wiring or welding doors shut.

Candy Digital lays off 100 staff

NFT company Candy Digital has reportedly laid off a sizeable portion of its workforce amid turbulent crypto market conditions and a massive dip in NFT trading volumes this year.

More than one-third of the company’s roughly 100 employees were cut according to a Nov. 28 report from the sports industry outlet Sportico.

It’s unclear the reason for the layoffs and if any particular departments were affected as Candy Digital has not publicly addressed the layoffs. The former community content manager at Candy Digital, Matthew Muntner, in a Nov. 28 Twitter post publicly confirmed he was part of the staff cuts:

I hate that I have to share this as much as I loved my job at @CandyDigital but I was part of the layoffs that occurred earlier today.

I am quickly looking for a new role in Community Management, Graphic Design, or related Marketing.

Thanks, Candy Fam for one hell of a ride ❤️
— Muntner (@muntnerdesigns) November 28, 2022

Cointelegraph contacted Candy Digital for comment but did not receive an immediate response.

Candy Digital was launched in June 2021, backed by sports e-commerce store Fanatics, crypto-friendly entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz.

The company quickly gained partnerships with sports leagues including Major League Baseball, NASCAR’s collaborative Race Team Alliance, and several college athletes. It was valued at $1.5 billion in Oct. 2021 following a $100 million funding round.

Candy Digital’s layoffs follow others across technology firms such as NFT protocol Metaplex’s Nov. 17 cuts of “several members” of its team, Meta’s Nov. 9 layoff of 11,000 employees, and Flow blockchain developer Dapper Labs’ Nov. 2 layoffs of roughly 130 employees.

Bored & Hungry restaurant runs pop-up at Phillippine blockchain week

The Long Beach-based NFT-themed burger restaurant Bored & Hungry has set up a pop-up shop at the Philippine Blockchain Week which kicked off on Nov. 28 local time.

It’s the first time the restaurant has operated in South East Asia, the brand also operated a pop-up french fry stand at NFT.London in early November.

Grilling in Manila for 3 days only!

Home of the Trill Burger, America’s best burger of 2022: @BorednHungry is bringing their apes and burgers to Manila! pic.twitter.com/RuDBy6Ykjg
— Philippine Blockchain week (@philblockchain) November 27, 2022

The restaurant first opened in April and is themed using the owner's intellectual property of his owned Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht club NFTs and accepted ETH and ApeCoin (APE) as payment.

Around two months after its opening, in June, the store inexplicably stopped accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment, likely due to the drop in crypto prices.

Ripple’s XRP Ledger hits new record NFT sale

Ripple’s XRP Ledger blockchain has recorded a new record NFT sale, with an XPUNK NFT — a clone of the popular Ethereum-native CryptoPunk NFTs — selling for 108,900 XRP (XRP), about $44,000 at the time of sale on Nov. 25.

The #XRPL has a new record! An @XRPLPUNKS NFT just got sold for 108900 $XRP (44000 USD).
This is just the beginning for #NFTonXRP.
— onXRP.com (@onXRPdotcom) November 25, 2022

The sale was a result of an open auction with over 20 people in a Discord voice chat according to the XPUNKS official Twitter account. It refused to disclose the purchaser but said “the community knows who it is.”

The XRP Ledger introduced NFTs on Oct. 31 with the introduction of the XLS-20 standard that was first proposed on May 25, 2021, the NFTs feature “automatic royalties” for creators.

More Nifty News

The community-led decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) made up of ApeCoin holders launched its own NFT marketplace on Nov. 24 featuring only Yuga Labs-backed collections.

Following the surprise win of the Saudi Arabian soccer team at the FIFA World Cup over Argentina on Nov. 22, the floor price of a Saudi Arabian-themed NFT collection unrelated to the team jumped by 52.6% with some appearing to view the tokens as an indirect way to bet on the success of soccer teams.

layoffs