As a non-profit organization behind Near Protocol, the Near Foundation announced yesterday (11) that it will lay off 40% of its workforce, mainly in the marketing, business development, and community teams, acknowledging that the team’s efficiency and execution progress are slower than expected. At the same time, companies including Google, Unity, and Twitch have also confirmed layoffs recently.
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Near team will focus on integrating core members
Foundation CEO assures financial health
Discord, Google, Twitch announce layoffs
Despite significant growth in token prices and the ecosystem in 2023, the Near Foundation still announced a 40% reduction in team size, expected to affect 35 employees, mainly from the marketing, business development, and community departments.
Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of the Near Protocol and CEO of the Foundation, revealed the reasons for this large-scale downsizing in a statement, and stated that they will help departing employees find opportunities in Web3 or other industries:
“After external community feedback and internal review, we have decided to significantly integrate the core team to focus on narrower and more impactful activities.”
He also added, “The engineering team Pagoda of the Near Protocol will continue to operate unaffected.”
Polosukhin also mentioned the financial condition of the Near Foundation, emphasizing that the Foundation has the ability to continue supporting the growth, development, and decentralization of the Near Protocol and its ecosystem:
“The Foundation’s treasury currently holds over $285 million in fiat currency, 305 million $NEAR tokens (worth over $1 billion), and approximately $70 million in investments and loans.”
Finally, he mentioned that the protocol will continue to be committed to chain abstraction, user-owned AI, and mainstream adoption of open networks.
Other protocols and teams that have recently announced layoffs include Chainalysis, Polkadot, OpenSea, and Ava Labs.
However, The Block’s predictions still express optimism about the Near Protocol, even claiming it could become the future “Solana killer.”
Discord, which also announced layoffs in the past two days, revealed in an internal memo obtained by The Verge that the company will reduce its workforce by 17%, equivalent to 170 employees, to focus attention, change collaboration methods, and enhance organizational agility.
As a popular and frequently used instant messaging service among gamers, Discord CEO Jason Citron attributed the layoffs to excessive hiring over the past three years:
“We grew quickly, and our workforce expanded too fast. Since the hiring boom in 2020, the number of employees has increased fivefold.”
He also added, “We created more projects, but became less efficient. Therefore, layoffs are necessary to improve Discord’s operations and execution efficiency.”
It is understood that other companies that have announced layoffs for the new year include search engine Google, game engine Unity, and live streaming platform Twitch, laying off several hundred people (specific numbers not disclosed), 1,800 people (25%), and 500 people (35%) respectively.
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