Sky Mavis—the event agency behind the NFT recreation Axie Infinity and the Ronin gaming community—laid off a good portion of its staff.
Sky Mavis co-founder Nguyen Thanh Trung wrote in a Nov. 23 tweet that the corporate “made the tough decision to let go of 21% of our workforce.” He claimed that the choice was unrelated to the agency’s funds or monetary well being.
“Instead, it is a strategic move that allows for a sharper focus and positioning Sky Mavis for hypergrowth in 2025 and beyond,” he defined. The agency is shifting its priorities with its long-term plan, specializing in the Ronin pockets, Mavis market, Axie Infinity and a associated new recreation, Web3 recreation publishing, and increasing the Ronin Community.
Axie Infinity is a play-to-earn recreation that includes NFT collectibles equivalent to paintings and movies that grew to become considerably widespread in early 2021. A Sky Mavis consultant instructed Decrypt that the following Axie Infinity recreation will come out in Q1 2025, “leveraging the lessons and institutional knowledge we’ve gained over the past few years.”
The Ronin Community is an Ethereum (ETH) gaming-focused sidechain that serves crypto video games, together with Axie Infinity, which Trung claims is now the third-most-used crypto community.
The bridge connecting the Ronin Community with Ethereum has additionally been hacked a number of occasions. The final one occurred in early August, when the bridge misplaced roughly $12 million price of property—however the white hat hacker who preemptively hacked the protocol returned many of the funds shortly thereafter.
Trung additionally hinted on the altering regulatory local weather, presumably in response to Republican candidate Donald Trump's victory in america presidential elections. “As crypto-friendly policies gain traction, we anticipate a wave of innovation and adoption for utility-driven Web3 projects,” he wrote.
Throughout his marketing campaign, Trump vowed to loosen restrictions on digital property and blockchain expertise companies within the U.S. Trung’s feedback counsel that the prospect of these adjustments had actual impression on the technique of the corporate going ahead.
“The underside line is that the token design house will now massively open up. I imagine that’s most bullish for DeFi and gaming, which we imagine are essentially the most consequential sectors which have essentially the most long-term substantive worth on this business," a Sky Mavis representative said. "We imagine this regulatory shift will drive important adoption, not only for blockchain gaming however for the broader Web3 business."
Editor's notice: This story was up to date after publication to incorporate feedback from Sky Mavis, together with particulars in regards to the new Axie Infinity recreation.
Edited by Stacy Elliott and Andrew Hayward