US-based e-commerce giant eBay is reportedly planning to exit the NFT space. According to reports, the platform cut its Web3 team by 30% this week. Not much is known about eBay’s reported decision, but it appears that some drama has unfolded between eBay and KnownOrigin, the NFT marketplace it acquired in 2022. At the time of the acquisition, eBay was looking to establish itself as a notable player in NFTs. arena.
Over the past few weeks, several senior officials at eBay have submitted their resignations. According to a report by CoinGape, Stef Jay, eBay’s head of business and strategy and David Moore, one of KnownOrigin’s founders, has not been actively working with the company for several weeks.
After acquiring KnownOrigin, eBay absorbed the team that runs the NFT marketplace. The plan was to expand and build on the partnership we were already working with KnownOrigin. However, tensions between the eBay and KnownOrigin teams have reportedly increased over the past 18 months since the acquisition. The information was revealed in a report published by NFTGators, citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter.
“Many within the company are disgruntled, blaming a lack of leadership and strategy for the layoffs. “Even in high-ranking positions, there is internal criticism questioning the qualifications of the current CEO of Web3 and eBay’s strategy team,” the source said.
In what appeared to be an internal communication, Moore informed his teammates that he had been affected by recent proposed layoffs at the company.
“It was cruel to witness layoffs happening within the team,” Moore said in his message. The message is a screenshot released by NFTGators as part of its report.
eBay has not commented on this situation at this time. It’s unclear whether these layoffs at eBay are part of an internal restructuring. Ultimately, the entire NFT market recorded its lowest ever sales in 2023.
NFT sales peaked in September 2021, when sales of these digital collectibles reached approximately $881 million (approximately Rs. 7,344 crore). However, as of November 2023, NFT sales revenue was only $10.85 million (about Rs. 90 crore).
KnownOrigin team members have not addressed the current situation in the public domain. eBay plans to lay off 1,000 more employees. This information was distributed to the eBay team by CEO Jamie Iannone in January.
“The most important and difficult of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 roles, or approximately 9% of our full-time staff. We are also planning to reduce the number of contracts within our replacement workforce in the coming months,” an official memo said at the time.
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