Sky Mavisthe blockchain startup behind Axie Infinity, has announced plans to lay off approximately 50 employees, representing 21% of the company’s workforce.
The reason given by the company is the new strategy focusing on core products. Nguyen Thanh Trung, one of the founders, has denied claims that the company’s financial situation was a factor in the decision.
Trung emphasized:
“Rather, this is a strategic move that allows us to focus more strongly and position Sky Mavis for strong growth in 2025 and beyond.”
However, the founder said affected employees will receive severance packages and job search assistance.
The past two years have been challenging for Sky Mavis, the company that once dominated the market with Axie Infinity.
However, the April 2022 hack, where hackers stole more than 173,000 ETH and USDC stablecoin worth more than $600 million, caused a huge shock. This is the biggest cryptocurrency theft of 2022.
Sky Mavis has raised $150 million from investors to compensate affected users. Since then, the company has recovered about $5.7 million, equivalent to less than 1% of the stolen money.
About 15% of this was spent on rehabilitation and other expenses. Although an additional $40 million has been recovered, the refund request process is still ongoing.
In addition to the financial impact of the hack, Sky Mavis, like many other companies in the industry, has also seen a decline in the popularity of play-to-earn (P2E) games and player engagement. user.
Critics point to factors such as lack of clear regulation, scalability issues, and poor gaming experiences as contributing factors to this decline.
However, despite these challenges, Sky Mavis maintains optimism, with Trung asserting that a Donald Trump presidency could be an important turning point for the Web3 ecosystem.
