Solana NFT Protocol Metaplex Announces Layoffs In Wake Of FTX Collapse
Solana NFT policy maker Metaplex declared openly on Thursday that it has undergone a company-wide stretch of layoffs, as the contagion prompted by crypto exchange FTX’s fall last week goes on to circulate across the Web3 ecosystem.
An unrevealed number of Metaplex employees were pink-slipped today due to deteriorating market disorders for crypto mostly, and for Solana especially, the company’s co-founder and CEO Stephen Hess declared today in a tweet.
Solana Response To Concerns Re-established Future Approach
While our treasury wasn’t instantly impacted by the fall of FTX and our fundamentals remain robust, however, the indirect influence on the market is noteworthy and requires that we take a more cautious strategy moving forward, Hess wrote.
Metaplex is the policy that powers NFTs on Solana, which has held root as an alternative NFT network to the Gallant Ethereum.
The firm started the year on a robust note, obtaining a $46 million raise in January financed by the likes of Multicoin Capital, Jump Crypto, and NBA legend Michael Jordan.
Months later, in the depth of the bear market, the firm initiated a native governance token, MPLX, which shortly after its September release plunged in value.
Subsequently, Excitement around the Solana NFT space has anecdotally cooled in recent weeks amid controversies over founder royalties, while Solana NFT sales fell rapidly in October.
Tens Of Millions Lost In FTX Ripple Effect
In the days after FTX’s fall, SOL dipped a staggering 60% in value, triple the toll inflicted on Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Though the Solana Foundation—the institution responsible for strengthening the Solana network—did lose tens of millions of dollars in FTX-associated undertakings, the profound ties between Bankman-Fried and the network seem to have influenced the Solana ecosystem.
However, Bankman-Fried has, for years, publicly motioned his strong backing for the network, in addition to erecting prominent Solana-based operations like Project Serum, a decentralized exchange.
Further, FTX erected a Solana-centric NFT forum on which several such collectibles are now stuck and unattainable during the exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings.
Megaplex’s layoffs declared late Thursday that there is yet another data juncture in the myriad, yet-to-be-accounted-for ripple effects of FTX’s fall.
Even without explicit financial vulnerability to the exchange, the reputational trauma incurred by FTX and its founder occurs to be wreaking havoc across seemingly-insulated nooks of the crypto industry.