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Here's what we have for you today:

• 👨🏼‍🤝‍👨🏼 Opensea Lays Off 20% Of Their Employees

• 💰 The 5th Largest Cryptopunk Sale Is In A Bear Market. But Why?

• 👨‍⚖️ Uk Judge Greenlights Nft Lawsuit

• 📊 Chart Of The Day

Opensea Lays Off 20% Of Their Employees

In the latest on the casualties of the bear attacks, 40 members of Opensea’s team are the most recent collateral damage of the drawn-out crypto winter.

Turns out the almighty Opensea can also develop icebergs in the winter, and now it’s not all smooth sailing for the company, its employees, and the users. As a result, the company is the latest to join the growing list of organizations to downsize this year. Needless to say, it’s a result of the unfavorable market conditions which have affected the company’s bottom line.

Opensea’s CEO Devin Finzer announced the decision to cut 20% of the company’s employees in a tweet on Thursday. He posted a screenshot of the note he shared with the team yesterday, captioning it, “today’s a hard day for Opensea.”

Expectedly, Finzer blamed the decision on the situation in the crypto market. He noted that the company needs to prepare for the possibility of a prolonged downturn. And such drastic changes will put the company in a position to weather the winter for the foreseeable future. Actually, that’s five years.

Before the layoff, Opensea’s team consisted of 275 members. But the downsizing reduced the number to 230.

In a bit of irony, the company started the year with a team of 90 employees. But they recorded huge profits off the back of a largely successful year in 2021. So, they built a bigger group by employing more customer service employees to handle requests and support.

Nonetheless, Finzer promised that the individuals being let go will be well compensated with generous severance, healthcare coverage into 2023, and accelerated equity vesting for those yet to hit their cliff. In other words, they’ll get to claim their assigned future earnings or retirement plans faster.

He also mentioned that the company will be helping with job placement and opening its personal network to support the former employers in other ways.

The Takeaways

There’s currently no respite anywhere in the cryptomarket and general digital world. Inflation is rising, there’s war in eastern Europe, and mentioning the state of the crypto market is becoming a cliche at this point. Unfortunately, it finally got to Opensea. Let’s hope things look up very soon, or we’ll still have more news like this.

The 5th Largest CryptoPunk Sale Is In A Bear Market. But Why?

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about NFT sales tanking amidst the bear market trend and how people are not willing to invest any more in images. Seems like someone read our publication and took it personally. So, they went and got themself a really expensive PFP.

Just kidding, we don't know if the collector read our article or if it spurred them to make a splurge. But we know they paid a handsome fee for the ape with a Vape.

The PFP in question is CryptoPunk #4464, and it was sold for 2,500 ETH (a little over $2.6 million) on Tuesday. That means it's now the 5th largest single sale in CryptoPunks (tying with two other CryptoPunks apes NFTs), and it comes right in the middle of crypto winter.

The winter is cold, after all. So, the collector is making their best impression of Pablo Escober (Burning $2 million to keep warm).

CryptoPunk #4464 is one of the 24 apes in the entire CryptoPunks collection. But it features other peculiar traits such as a vape pen, eye mask, and a durag.

However, while it's tied with two other CryptoPunks apes for the same ETH price, their USD values vary dramatically.

But in all fairness, the collector got a great deal on the NFT, given that the asset was initially valued at 2595 ETH by DeepNFTVAlue, and the state of the market has significantly lowered its fiat value. Plus, it is the 32nd rarest item out of the entire collection of 10,000 punks. So, in an ideal crypto market, the asset would be worth more than what it was sold for

For example, when a fellow ape, CryptoPunk #4156, was sold for 2,500 ETH in December 2021, it went for over $10.25 million at the time. In addition, when the other ape CryptoPunk #5577 was sold for the same ETH value in February, its fiat value was $7.7 million. So, this one is a snag for the collector who now has their own 24 CryptoPunks in their personal collection.

Only CryptoPunks with alien traits have gone for higher values than the apes. The most expensive CryptoPunks NFT was the alien punk #5822, which was purchased for 8000 ETH in February by the CEO of Chain, Deepak Thapliyal

According to cryptoslam, the sale overtook a pair of BAYC NFTs as the single largest NFT sale in the last 30 days. The two BAYC NFTs sold for $1.2 million and a little over $1 million, respectively.

If you're thinking like us, you'd wonder, how come the bearish market trends seem to have no effect on Bluechips NFTs? CryptoPunks, BAYC, and other headliner NFT collections seem to be doing fine despite the market conditions. What could be the reason for that?

Well, there could be 2 reasons 1. (off the record) word on the street is most of these purchases are based on insider information. In other words, there are rumors that some people somewhere know something and they've been talking to other people about it.

But that’s off the record. And there's no solid evidence to back the rumors.

2. its just because the market conditions are changing and people want to buy into blue chips. And the best blue chip of them all are Cryptopunks

🤣 How About A Laugh?

UK Judge Greenlights NFT Lawsuits

Heads up! Check your wallets; you may have a lawsuit waiting in there for you.

The gentleman who owns Microgame, Mr. Fabrizio D'Aloia, recently got a judge's approval to drop a lawsuit against these companies in wallets that are currently in the custody of unnamed individuals affiliated with these companies.

Hol' up a bit; how did he get the legal approval?

As everyone who has ever had any legal run-ins in the UK knows, the UK civil rules only allow lawsuits to be delivered via official interaction means.

In other words, you can either drop it off in person, send it through the mail, use the fax machine, or any other electronic means to serve the defendant party. But, the defendant party must have agreed to receive the legal documents via such means beforehand. The only exception is the court allowing it for a "good reason."

That said, the High Court of England and Wales has decided that the reason is good enough to serve the crypto companies' lawsuit NFTs in the wallets used to defraud Mr. Fabrizio. Essentially, the case will be directed to the unknown perpetrators responsible for the scam.

Okay, why are the companies getting served?

According to Mr. Fabrizio's claims, these companies, or some people connected to them, were allegedly operating a cloned online brokerage which they used to trick him into depositing about 2.1 million USDT and 230,000 USDC into two wallets. Unfortunately, the wallets were set up for scamming purposes.

Fabrizio claims the companies are currently in possession of his crypto, and since the original scammers can't be identified or contacted, the companies holding custody of his assets should get the action. He already got an injunction last month, which prevented the exchanges from moving the assets. And now he's been authorized to airdrop NFTs of the legal documents into the hacked wallets.

So, what's the takeaway?

We expect this move to be the first of many as others start implementing the same measures in pursuing legal actions on matters connected to the blockchain. Joanne Bailey, an associate lawyer with the UK law firm Giambrone & Partners, mentioned the importance of this move, stating that it shows the court is willing to adapt to new technologies and embrace the blockchain.

Chart Of The Day

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