SuperRare Announces 30% Job Cuts 

The NFT market is in an interesting space at the moment. On one hand, we are seeing new and exciting projects being announced every other day, as well as growing interest from corporate brands. On the other hand, the industry is still feeling the effects of the crypto winter and this has meant that NFT collections and marketplaces have suffered a decline in trading volume. 

Case in point, SuperRare Labs, the parent company of the popular NFT marketplace, has announced that it will be reducing its workforce by 30%. This was confirmed by its CEO John Crain in a message on Slack from January 6, 2023. 

Why SuperRare is Cutting Jobs 

In his announcement, Crain explained that the company had made hiring decisions according to market conditions at the time, which meant that hiring decisions were made. However, the company has since realised that its quick expansion is unsustainable and this has caused the decision to downsize. 

“During the recent bull run, we grew in tandem with the market. In recent months it’s become clear that this aggressive growth was unsustainable: we over-hired, and I take full ownership of this mistake. To correct course, we’ve made the difficult decision to rightsize our team, ensuring 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,” the statement said. 

Crain noted that SuperRare Labs is proud of the team that it has built and will be supporting those who have been let go in finding new opportunities. 

Obviously, while this is an unfortunate situation for SuperRare Labs, Crain has said this isn’t the end- for the company or for web3 as a whole. The industry has suffered some setbacks in recent times but he notes that there is more to come for web3 in the form of NFTs, cryptoart, decentralized finance, and much more. SuperrareLabs, on its part, will be focusing on the burgeoning global digital renaissance and creating more access to it for consumers. 

“This journey is a marathon, not a sprint: we’ve achieved a tremendous amount in the past five years, from the very first artwork sold on SuperRare to Web3 spearheading the future of digital culture across nearly every industry. Each and every team member at SuperRare Labs helped make this revolution happen and they will forever be a part of our story,” the message said. 

Powering Through the Crypto Winter 

We have, unfortunately, found ourselves in the middle of a crypto winter and this has meant that companies within the blockchain sector have had to lay off staff, with NFT projects not being spared. 

But as Crain has said, this does not spell the end of web3 or even NFTs. While companies brace for the winter, it is a chance for those in the industry to come out even stronger than before. And given our past collective experience with crypto winters, that is what will likely happen.