Dapper Labs lays off nearly a quarter of its staff

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Hot on the heels of news that Hootsuite has laid off five percent of its workforce, Dapper Labs today announced that it’s let 22 percent of its workers go.

The Vancouver unicorn and Web3 darling has parted ways with approximately 134 people, according to the company’s LinkedIn profile, which lists 613 employees.

Dapper Labs is in the crosshairs of two major motivating factors: the economic headwinds plaguing the tech industry at large, and the NFT market crash. Despite a $7.5 billion valuation and consistent launches of new products — including last week’s Top Shot 50 in partnership with the NBA — the company has not been exempt from the recent plunge in sales and trading of Web3 assets.

“We know Web3 and crypto is the future across a multitude of industries — with 1000x potential from here in terms of mainstream adoption and impact — but today’s macroeconomic environment means we aren’t in full control of the timing,” wrote Dapper Labs founder and CEO Roham Gharegozlou in a letter that was sent to staff yesterday about the layoffs.

The cuts are the latest in a stream of layoffs in Vancouver, which began in March. Thinkific, Legible, Shopify, Unbounce, Article, and more have all reduced their headcounts this year. There may be more before 2022 is out.

Now, onto your daily briefing.

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Until tomorrow!