After FTX’s Demise, NFT Metaplex on Solana Announces Layoffs
Stephen Hess, CEO of Metaplex, a Solana eco-NFT platform, announced on Twitter that the firm had undergone layoffs. While the precise number of layoffs was kept private, Stephen added that the demise of FTX had no immediate impact on its financial situation.
Layoffs Following FTX’s Bankruptcy
A round layoff at Metaplex, a manufacturer of Solana NFT protocol, was revealed recently as the Web3 ecosystem continues to be affected by the contagion brought on by the collapse of the cryptocurrency FTX last week.
Stephen Hess, co-founder and CEO of Metaplex, stated that an unspecified number of staff members had received pink slips due to the poor market conditions for cryptos in general and Solana in particular.
Although the demise of FTX had no direct effects on the treasury, and the fundamentals are still solid, Hess noted that the indirect impact on the market was severe, necessitating a more cautious strategy in the future.
Are the Metaplex MPLX Courses falling?
The Solana NFT network, which has gained traction as a competitor to Ethereum, uses the Metaplex protocol to power its NFTs. The business started in 2018, raising $46 million in January from investors, including NBA superstar Michael Jordan, Jump Crypto, and Multicoin Capital.
A few months later, the company unveiled MPLX, a native governance token, which experienced a sharp decline in value after being released in September. The technology sales also dropped in October amid concerns regarding creator royalties, and interest in the Solana NFT market has anecdotally waned since.
Is FTX’s Bankruptcy a Motivating Factor?
Then, this week, FTX collapsed, pulling down all assets and projects related to Solana. The network that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried favored dearly.
SOL’s value plummeted shockingly by 60% in the days following the demise of FTX, suffering a loss three times greater than that of Bitcoin and Ethereum. Even while the Solana Foundation, the group in charge of keeping the Solana network running, did lose tens of millions of dollars in FTX-related investments, the close linkages between Bankman-Fried and the network seem to have had the most effect on the Solana ecosystem.
In addition to developing well-known Solana-based projects like Project Serum, a decentralized exchange, Bankman-Fried has long made clear his strong support for the network in public. Additionally, FTX developed a Solana-based NFT platform on which many of these collectibles are currently stuck and inaccessible throughout the exchange’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The layoffs at Metaplex, revealed late on Thursday, are one more example of the numerous, uncounted impacts of FTX’s demise. Even without a direct financial stake in the exchange, the reputational harm FTX and its founder suffered appears to be causing mayhem in previously unaffected areas of the crypto business.
