Ava Labs Employees Report Layoffs, ‘Many People’ Affected

Crypto startup Ava Labs, which supports the Avalanche blockchain network, laid off a substantial portion of its workforce Monday, multiple impacted employees confirmed with Decrypt.

While the scale of the cuts has not yet been confirmed by Ava Labs, the layoffs have impacted the company’s communications and marketing teams. Garrison Yang, VP of Growth and Strategy at Ava Labs, wrote on Twitter on Monday afternoon that the cuts affected “many people” in the company’s marketing division. Another laid off employee wrote that the layoffs have hit “so many others.”

Decrypt reached out to multiple executives and spokespeople at Ava Labs, but did not immediately receive any responses.

It remains unclear whether Monday’s cuts have impacted the company’s technical teams, but by all accounts, the layoffs have been widespread—to the degree that, even amid the current, brutal crypto bear market, they caught many employees by surprise.

Today was the last day at @AvaLabs for many people on this all star marketing team.

If your project or company is looking for some of the top talent in crypto, please let me know. These are the people who built @gamingonavax from zero in less than a year, the people who brought… https://t.co/ozcBOa78Q6

— hushky 🔺 (dim / sum) (@0xHushky) November 6, 2023

“I thought we were turning a corner,” one laid off Ava Labs employee who asked not to be identified told Decrypt. “But seems like it was quite a few of us.”

One former member of Ava’s gaming marketing team wrote that he understands Monday’s cuts to be part of a larger “restructuring” strategy.

More along the lines of restructuring

— Trading Aloha 🔺 (@TradingAloha) November 6, 2023

Late last week, NFT marketplace OpenSea underwent a similar “restructuring,” which saw the company lay off about 50% of its entire staff. Less than two years prior, OpenSea had appeared untouchable, securing a whopping $13.3 billion valuation after a Series C funding round.

But the enduring crypto recession—which kicked off almost a year and a half ago following the implosions of cryptocurrencies Terra and LUNA last May—has stubbornly persisted. Even after multiple rounds of layoffs at major crypto companies this year and last, the sturdiest of firms in the industry are struggling to hold on until the next crypto spring—which seems to many just as far away as ever.

Edited by Andrew Hayward

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