OpenSea’s CFO of the Non-Fungal Market (NFT), Brian Roberts, has become the latest high-profile Web3 executive to leave his role amid the current bear market, leaving after just 10 months in the role.
On Oct. 7, the former CFO of shared ride-hailing platform Lyft and OpenSea said it was time for him to “come ashore” from the “open seas,” but he didn’t say the exact reasons for the change, only that he would remain as an advisor to the company going forward.
Roberts was appointed Chief Financial Officer in December 2021 after working at Lyft for seven years. He also held previous positions in corporate roles at US retail giant Walmart and technology company Mircosoft.
Roberts was among a long line of tech veterans who have jumped to Web3 over the past few years, including former Google vice president Surojit Chatterjee, who became chief product officer at Coinbase in 2020, and Amazon’s Pravjit Tiwana, who became Gemini CTO Janua 2022.
One of his primary responsibilities during his tenure at OpenSea was to grow the finance team. In his LinkedIn post, Roberts noted:
“I had the rare opportunity to literally build a team from the ground up and handpick creatives.”
According to his statement, he has been working closely with CEO Devin Fenzer and Vice President of Strategic Finance Justin Jow to ensure a “smooth transition,” which may indicate that Jow will step up and take over the newly vacant executive role.
Despite stepping away from the CFO position, Roberts maintains that he remains “incredibly optimistic on Web 3.”
Notably, Roberts’ departure came on the same day that another OpenSea executive announced his resignation.
On October 7, OpenSea Vice President of Business Development Ryan Fotey announced his departure from the company after 18 months.
Foti said the company has come a long way since operating out of co-founder Alex Atallah’s basement and wished his “colleagues” well.
Related: OpenSea to allow users to submit bulk NFT listings and purchases
Roberts and Foti are just the latest cryptocurrency executives to leave their current roles amid the market downturn.
NFT trading volume is down 98% from roughly $6.2 billion at the end of January to $114.4 million.
The NFT market has suffered setbacks as well, including cutting 20% of its staff in July, and a significant drop in daily trading volume.
The entire market has seen a sharp decline from a cliff in May with the onset of a sustained cryptocurrency bear market.
Other high-profile executives announcing their departures from their companies include US FTX President Brett Harrison, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor and Genesis Trading CEO Michael Morrow.
Update: Correction of the number of months Brian Roberts was Chief Financial Officer at OpenSea.
