NFT Marketplace SuperRare Cuts 30% of Staff Because They Overhired

Curated NFT marketplace SuperRare has laid off 30% of staff, according to CEO John Crain, because the company overhired during the market upswing and could not sustain its growth recently.

Alex Harutunian

Jan 12, 2023 - 1 min read

SuperRare is an NFT marketplace we never really focused on, so let’s give it a short introduction. The platform was launched in 2018 as a social network for artists and collectors of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. SuperRare collaborated with celebrities like Madonna and Snoop Dogg, and also with popular NFT artists like Beeple. Recently the marketplace launched a RarePass for exclusive curated art drops.

On January 6, SuperRare CEO John Crain tweeted that the company saw rapid growth when the NFT market was booming and overhired to compensate. "In recent months, it's become clear that this aggressive growth was unsustainable: we overhired, and I take full ownership of this mistake," he wrote. As a result, they made a tough decision to “resize” their team and ensure that can continue to service the artists and collectors.

Crain also assured that SuperRare would help those affected by the layoffs transition to new opportunities. In the statement he wanted to sound optimistic by saying that there is a lot of innovation and transformation yet to come for Web3 art.

SuperRare just joined a growing number of crypto companies that have laid off staff to stay afloat in turbulent market conditions. Last April, Coinbase reduced their headcount, then the top NFT marketplace OpenSea laid off roughly 20% of its staff. In November, Meta cut off 13% of its workforce across its apps and Reality Labs segments. But it’s not just the crypto industry that is suffering layoffs: big tech companies like Amazon are also cutting jobs as the U.S. economy continues to suffer in the new year. We continue to observe.