eBay may consider exiting NFT sector, reportedly cutting Web3 team

eBay, the US-based e-commerce giant, is reportedly planning to pull out of the NFT space. The platform has reportedly cut its Web3 team by 30 percent this week. While not much is known about eBay’s reported decision, there seems to have been some drama between eBay and NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, which it acquired in 2022. At the time of the acquisition, eBay was looking to establish itself as a prominent player in NFT arena.

Over the past few weeks, some high-ranking eBay employees have resigned. Steph Jay, eBay’s business and strategy officer, and KnownOrigin co-founder David Moore — both of whom have not been actively involved with the company for several weeks, according to report by CoinGape.

After the acquisition of KnownOrigin, eBay took over the team managing the NFT market. The plan was to expand and build on partnerships already working with KnownOrigin. However, in the last eighteen months since the acquisition, tensions between the eBay team and the KnownOrigin team have reportedly grown. The information was revealed in a report published by NFTGators, citing an anonymous source familiar with the matter.

“Many in the company are unhappy and blame a lack of leadership and strategy for the layoffs. There is internal criticism, even at senior levels, questioning the qualifications of the current head of Web3 as well as eBay’s strategy team.” report quoted from the source.

In what appears to be an internal communication, Moore informed his teammates that he was affected by the latest round of proposed layoffs at the company.

“To witness this level of layoffs on the team has been brutal,” Moore said in his announcement — a screenshot of which was posted as part of the NFTGators report.
As of now, eBay has not addressed the situation. It remains unclear whether these cuts from eBay are part of an internal restructuring. After all, the overall NFT market saw record low sales in 2023.

NFT sales peaked in September 2021, when sales of these digital collectibles managed to amass around $881 million (roughly Rs. 7,344 crore). However, as of November 2023, NFT sales managed to bring in only $10.85 million (roughly Rs. 90 crore).

KnownOrigin team members have also not addressed the situation publicly at this time. eBay plans to cut another thousand jobs. This information was leaked to the eBay team by CEO Jamie Iannone in January.

“The most significant and difficult of these decisions is to reduce our current workforce by approximately 1,000 positions, or approximately nine percent of full-time employees. We also plan to reduce the number of contracts we have within our alternative workforce in the coming months.” official notice had said at the time.