Brian Roberts, CFO of NFT Marketplace OpenSea, left the organization less than a year after joining.
Brian Roberts, former CFO of motor vehicle technology innovation giant Lyft, joined OpenSea in December 2021, marking ten months of active duty, leading and growing the finance team in the largest NFT market.
Following his departure, the firm’s vice president of finance, Justin Jow, will take over.
The information about Brian Roberts’s departure is mainly based on his update on LinkedIn, while he will proceed to serve as an advisor to the organization.
However, on his private Twitter at the time of creation, Brian Roberts has not removed his private CFO position at OpenSea.
He tweeted that, “Well, it’s time for me to come ashore from the ‘open seas.’ I am grateful for the opportunity and proud of many accomplishments, but none more so than the strength of the OpenSea finance team.”
The former Lyft CFO said he is “incredibly bullish on Web 3.0 and especially OpenSea. The company is building with its head down, and I assure you that the best is yet to come.”
Crypto Market Leaders on the Run
Earlier this year, OpenSea revealed that it was laying off 20% of its workforce due to the bear market effect.
Brian Roberts’ departure comes amid a wave of migration by many of the top leaders in the cryptocurrency market with increasing frequency.
In general, interest in NFTs and cryptocurrencies has dwindled due to the bear market and uncertainties surrounding the global economy. Amidst these events, many crypto companies have seen their executives resign, including Algorand, Alameda Research, Kraken, Celsius, etc.
In recent months, at least 10 executives have left their posts. Kraken’s Jesse Powell has announced a transition plan that will see him step down from his role as CEO. MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor stepped down as CEO, and former FTX.US President Brett Harrison recently resigned.
Additionally, CEOs of bankrupt crypto firms, Alex Mashinksy, of crypto lender Celsius, and Dave Perril, of Bitcoin miner Compute North, stepped down from their posts.
While there are various reasons for resignation, ranging from bankruptcy to simple restructuring, the mass exodus of this group is probably due to the current market downturn.
Reasons for Leaving
The motives behind these moves may differ, but they all come at a time when the cryptocurrency industry is in significant decline. As for OpenSea, this is the third consecutive downsizing on the platform in the last two months, following a plan to cut 20% of workers, while co-founder Alex Atallah is determined to phase out to focus on new tasks.
According to DappRadar, OpenSea’s monthly volume is currently up 7% to $245 million. Additionally, the number of unique wallet addresses interacting with the protocol also dropped by 4.12% to 258.23k.
About OpenSea
Regarding the market in which OpenSea operates, the volume of NFT transactions has also decreased substantially since last year, with a sharp drop in the volume of transactions in OpenSea, above 30% in September 2022.
OpenSea is backed by well-known investment funds such as Paradigm and Coatue. Earlier this year, the company raised $300 million at a valuation of $13.3 billion. Immediately after the fundraising round, in order to expand its business and strengthen its place in the industry, OpenSea acquired Gem.xyz, an industry-leading NFT aggregation alternative. It also generated its own investment fund, which incubates the NFT ecosystem called OpenSea Enterprises.
By Audy Castaneda
