Sky Mavis announces a 21% reduction in staff.

Sky Mavis, the developer behind blockchain-based game Axie Infinity, has announced a 21% reduction in its global workforce.

This move is part of a larger restructuring plan to ensure the company’s future stability and development.

Basic products and future growth

According to a local media report, this decision will affect approximately 50 employees out of a total workforce of 250. However, affected employees will receive severance packages and job placement support as part of the transition.

In a statement on November 23, Sky Mavis co-founder Nguyen Thanh Trung explained that the decision aligns with a strategy to prioritize core products and long-term goals while clarifying that it was not driven by financial pressures.

“This decision is not related to the budget or the financial situation of the company. This is a strategic move to enable a clearer focus and position Sky Mavis for growth in 2025 and beyond,” said the co-founder.

Trung emphasized that the recent crypto-friendly policies could lead to a wave of innovation in Web3 projects, comparable to the transformative period of 2018 when the company launched Axie Infinity.

At that time, Sky Mavis focused on improving the Ronin Wallet, developing the Mavis Marketplace, expanding the Ronin blockchain to attract more developers, and introducing new Web3 games.

Shifting focus amid challenges

Founded in 2018, Sky Mavis gained global recognition with Axie Infinity, a pioneer in the play-to-win (P2E) gaming space. It became especially popular during the pandemic, offering users a way to earn income through the game.

To support Axie Infinity, the company developed its blockchain, Ronin. In the announcement, Trung described the protocol as one of the most widely used blockchains globally, with more than 1.1 million daily active addresses and more than 10 million downloads of its Ronin Wallet app.

Despite its success, Sky Mavis has faced significant challenges, including the relative decline of the P2E trend and the 2022 Ronin Bridge hack, which resulted in a loss of $615 million in cryptocurrency.

In response, the company introduced a free version of Axie Infinity and turned Ronin into a platform for wider Web3 game projects.

Most recently, the protocol experienced its second hack in nearly two years, with attackers stealing more than $11 million from it.

Shortly after the incident, Aleksander Leonard Larsen, co-founder and COO of Sky Mavis, revealed that his team had suspended operations to investigate a report by white hat hackers about a possible MEV exploit.

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