Yuga Labs is downsizing as part of a company restructuring.
The Miami blockchain startup is laying off an unspecified number of people as it shifts its strategy, CEO Daniel Alegre said in a letter to employees on Oct. 6. The decision came after a recent meeting between Yuga Labs' leadership team in New York City.
Trending: Inno Under 25: Meet 10 of South Florida's young leaders
Alegre, who was appointed chief executive last December, said the firm needed to narrow its vision and focus on projects aligned with its long term goals.
"I realized very quickly that there were a number of projects that, while well-intentioned, either spread the team too thin or required execution expertise beyond our core competencies," he wrote.
In a post on social media platform X (previously Twitter), co-founder Greg Solano said Yuga Labs still has more than 120 employees after the layoffs.
"[It] hurts to part ways with team members who have been in the trenches with us," the post said. "But we needed to make some changes to the company in order to make sure we’re set up for longterm success."
A representative for the firm declined to comment on the layoffs when contacted by the Business Journal.
Yuga Labs builds products intended for Web 3, an idea for a future version of the internet powered by blockchain technology. It launched in 2021 with its flagship Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 unique digital images of cartoon apes. At its height, some of those NFTs sold for hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of dollars, with buyers that included celebrities Justin Bieber and Paris Hilton.
NFT ownership exploded two years ago, when the trading of digital collectibles hit $17 billion. But the market collapsed in late 2022, sinking the value of even the most sought-after collections.
Investors poured money into Yuga Labs that year. In April 2022, the company raised $450 million from investors, pushing its valuation to $4 billion. Nationally, it was one of the largest fundings of the year.
Related: Startup shuts down two years after raising $50M from investors
Some of that capital bankrolled Otherside, a gamified virtual world where users can turn their NFTs into playable characters. The development of Otherside will be a priority for the business as it moves forward with the restructuring. It will also focus on expanding its communities of Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks NFT holders.
"We [will] laser focus our internal development efforts on those things only Yuga can do, like our web3 platform components and Otherside," Alegre stated in the letter.
For more stories like this one, sign up for Miami Inno newsletters from the South Florida Business Journal and the American Inno network.
