SuperRare Cuts Workforce by 30% as Growth Falters During Crypto Winter

NFT marketplace SuperRare has announced a 30% workforce layoff, with CEO John Crain noting that the company over-hired during the previous bull market.

In a Jan. 7 tweet, Crain tweeted a screenshot of his message to SuperRare's Slack channel announcing the 30% cut, adding that he had some difficult news to deliver.

“Startups are a balancing act of managing rapid growth while doing all possible to conserve limited resources. During the current bull run, we grew in lockstep with the market,” he said, adding:

“In recent months, it has become evident that our rapid growth was unsustainable: we over-hired, and I accept full responsibility for this mistake.”

Crain did not specify what kind of backup packages the terminated employees will receive. However, Crain noted that the firm will do everything possible to assist them in transitioning to new opportunities and supporting them in future endeavors.

SuperRare is one of the most well-known names in the space, yet it has a substantially lower trading volume than competitors like as OpenSea and Magic Eden.

As per DappRadar statistics, SuperRare oversaw $663,000 in trade activity during the last 30 days, compared to OpenSea's $307 million and Magic Eden's $80.1 million.

This is owing in part to SuperRare's strategy, which focuses on art, the artist community, and limited-edition NFT artworks rather than the computer-generated avatar model with millions of tokens in a single collection.

Moving forward, Crain stated that, despite a decrease in growth during the crypto bear market, SuperRare remains committed to its initial goal of providing greater access and exposure to digital artists.

“We are facing headwinds, yes, but there is an enormous untapped opportunity as we continue to develop something completely new: a worldwide digital art renaissance that is transparent, fair, and accessible from anywhere in the globe,” he concluded.

SuperRare's significant workforce reduction joins a wave of blockchain and crypto firms that have reduced staff during crypto winter.

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