Brian Roberts, who joined OpenSea after working at Lyft, Walmart, and Microsoft, said he is leaving the company just ten months after joining it.
This is the latest example of cryptocurrency executives stepping down amid the ongoing bear market.
As last year’s bull market was raging on and NFTs had taken the main stage, OpenSea became the go-to place for everyone who wanted to get involved with these types of digital assets. Consequently, the company started expanding aggressively, and Brian Roberts took the position of Chief Financial Officer in early December.
The tides continue to be in favor of NFTs and Open Sea in particular, and the marketplace saw record-setting consecutive months. However, the landscape in the cryptocurrency industry could change just as quickly, and NFTs, along with asset prices, tumbled in the following months. NFT trading volume also slumped. OpenSea saw a 90% decline from January to August.
Fast-forward to October 7, and Roberts took it to Linkedin to announce leaving the NFT marketplace. As with other similar examples lately, he thanked the company for the opportunity, wished it all the best, and said it was a real pleasure to “build a team literally from the ground up and handpicked game changers.”
While indicating that he will remain as an advisor to the OpenSea team, Roberts said he is still bullish for the company’s future, NFTs, and Web 3.
The cryptocurrency winter has not been kind to everything related to the industry, and many executives working in such companies had to step down.
Perhaps the biggest name to do so was Michael Saylor, leaving his post as CEO of the company that he built – MicroStrategy. Nevertheless, the firm continues with its pro-bitcoin strategy, being the largest BTC corporate holder.
The executives of many of the struggling firms, such as Compass Mining and Celsius, also left their posts. The latest to do so were the President and CEO of NYDIG – Yan Zhao and Robert Gutmann.