[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"news-aggregator-four-opensea-execs-quit-in-las28401924f25-9900-7f96-b0d7-ec365f4b41a8":3},{"id":4,"timestamp":5,"title":6,"content":7,"link":8,"preview":9,"tags":10,"predictedTags":10,"showTags":10,"source":11,"reactions":12,"selfReactions":13,"logo":14,"sourceId":15,"sourceUserId":16,"asset":17,"tagsCategories":18,"totalComments":19,"lang":20,"unique_views_count":21,"enrichStatus":17,"triageKind":16,"triageImportance":16,"expandEligible":16,"summarizeEligible":16,"eventEligible":16,"eventType":16,"eventAction":16},"four-opensea-execs-quit-in-las28401924f25-9900-7f96-b0d7-ec365f4b41a8","1727903514000","Four OpenSea execs quit in last three months as troubles mount for NFT marketplace","\u003Cp>Four key senior executives and a top developer at OpenSea, the beleaguered NFT marketplace, have left the company since July, according to social media posts on LinkedIn and X.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Recent departures include \u003Ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/shivar/\" target=\"_blank\">Shiva Rajaraman\u003C/a>, the former COO; \u003Ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinjow/\" target=\"_blank\">Justin Jow\u003C/a>, former vice president of finance; and \u003Ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/jrfine/\" target=\"_blank\">Jeremy Fine\u003C/a>, former head of business and corporate development.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Rajaraman, Jow, and Fine were part of OpenSea’s leadership team, or the group of executives who report directly to Devin Finzer, co-founder and CEO of the startup, according to company documents.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The three former executives have moved on to Uber, Scale AI, and OpenAI, respectively.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>\u003Ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-kreuzkamp/\" target=\"_blank\">Karen Kreuzkamp\u003C/a>, OpenSea’s top lawyer, left in August for a position at Tools for Humanity, the company behind OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s crypto project Worldcoin.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>And “0age,” one of OpenSea’s key engineers, recently \u003Ca href=\"https://x.com/z0age/status/1836408091375734843\" target=\"_blank\">announced\u003C/a> that he jumped ship to Uniswap Labs.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>“He’s an amazing protocol developer,” a former employee told DL News, in reference to 0age, who is pseudonymous.\u003C/p>Exec exodus\u003Cp>The recent exodus of executives follows a round of departures last November. OpenSea’s general counsel, vice president of operations, head of HR, and head of communications each left the company shortly after the startup \u003Ca href=\"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/people-culture/cz-exit-from-binance-and-polkadot-drama-shaped-crypto-jobs/\" target=\"_blank\">laid off\u003C/a> more than half of its staff that month.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Now, the only members with more than a yearlong tenure on OpenSea’s leadership team beyond Finzer are Nadav Hollander, the CTO; and Lorens Huculak, co-head of OpenSea Pro, the marketplace’s platform for experienced NFT traders.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>None of the recently departed executives immediately responded to a request for comment, and OpenSea did not return a request for comment.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The departures come as the company faces a moribund NFT market, intense competition from other NFT marketplaces, and regulatory scrutiny.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Total NFT sales reached $304 million in August, an almost 95% decline from the market’s height in January 2022, according to \u003Ca href=\"https://www.cryptoslam.io/nftglobal?timeFrame=month\">CryptoSlam\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Meanwhile, competitors like Blur and Magic Eden have eaten into OpenSea’s share of the shrinking market. Once the go-to locale to buy and sell NFTs, OpenSea ranks only fourth in 30-day trading volume, according to \u003Ca href=\"https://www.nftpulse.org/marketplaces\" target=\"_blank\">NFT Pulse\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>Legal matters\u003Cp>To make matters worse, the company is facing an \u003Ca href=\"https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/opensea-facing-potential-sec-lawsuit/\" target=\"_blank\">investigation\u003C/a> from the US Securities and Exchange Commission.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>In August, Finzer announced that his company had received a Wells notice, or formal communication from the SEC that an entity is subject to potential litigation.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The agency was probing whether NFTs on its platform were unregistered securities, Finzer said.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>“We’re shocked the SEC would make such a sweeping move against creators and artists,” he \u003Ca href=\"https://x.com/dfinzer/status/1828791832009953706\">wrote\u003C/a> on X. “But we’re ready to stand up and fight.”\u003C/p>\u003Cp>On the heels of the Wells notice announcement, OpenSea users lodged a lawsuit against the NFT marketplace in September.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>The plaintiffs are represented by Adam Moskowitz, a lawyer behind some of the largest class-action lawsuits in crypto.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>“Conjuring from thin air a purported class action lawsuit based on our disclosure of an SEC Wells notice won’t make the allegations in the complaint true,” an OpenSea spokesperson previously said in a statement to DL News.\u003C/p>\u003Cp>Ben Weiss is DL News’ Dubai Correspondent. Got a tip? Email at \u003Ca href=\"mailto:bweiss@dlnews.com\">bweiss@dlnews.com\u003C/a>.\u003C/p>","https://www.dlnews.com/articles/web3/four-opensea-execs-quit-nft-venture-in-last-three-months/","https://www.dlnews.com/resizer/v2/OL3P2KSXNJDJPFMB5HCOMBJQB4.jpg?smart=true&auth=dd41ed5c9d6702f07023f19f4fb0b9447c6ef86536ca04380d12dcaf3e1ed7cf&width=1200&height=630","[]","284",[],[],"https://toscalepublic.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/images/news-feeds/sources/dl-news.png","DL News",null,"","[\"Crypto\"]","0","EN","4"]