Sales for Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot fell to $2.6 million from $224 million in February 2021.
One of the biggest names in the Non Fungible Token (NFT) industry is dramatically reducing its headcount as the crypto bear market continues to take its toll on Web3 companies.
Dapper Labs, the company that created the NBA Top Shot on the NFT marketplace, announced today that it will be laying off 22% of its employees, citing the “macro-economic environment.”
“These cuts are the last thing we want to do, but they’re necessary for the long-term health of our business and communities. We know web3 and crypto are the future across many industries – with potential 1000 times more likely from here in terms of mainstream adoption and impact – but today’s macroeconomic environment means we’re not in complete control of time,” said Dapper Labs Roham Founder and CEO Gharegozlou wrote in a blog post.
Gharegozlou writes that the company has grown too fast, which has prevented it from being “as connected, agile, and community-driven as we need to be.”
“Refocusing our organization will allow us to achieve all of our milestones in a sustainable way: web3-native, mobile-first, and community-driven,” writes Gharegozlou.
At the same time, on-chain data shows that market interest in Dapper Labs products is waning, following a broader trend of investors staying away from NFTs. On NBA Top Shot, October sales hit $2.6 million, down from $40.8 million in the same time last year. During the peak NFT frenzy, the NBA Top Shot marketplace generated $224 million worth of NFT transactions in February 2021 across 80,822 unique buyers and 1.2 million transactions.
It’s a similar story for the recently launched NFL All Day collectibles market, with $6 million in sales in October, down from $14 million a month earlier.
Dapper Labs’ layoffs are just the latest in a series of cuts across the industry. In recent weeks, companies like BitMEX, Digital Currency Group (DCG) and NYDIG, have all cut staff to combat the bear market.
DCG is the parent company of CoinDesk, as well as digital asset manager Grayscale Investments and crypto brokerage Genesis Trading.
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