San Francisco, Jul 15 (IANS): Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea's co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer announced that the platform is laying off about 20 per cent of its total employees.

On the microblogging site Twitter, the CEO shared a note that said "today is a hard day for OpenSea, as we are letting go of 20 per cent of our team".

"We made an incredibly sad and difficult decision to reduce the size of our team by -- 20 per cent, and today we're saying goodbye to many of our friends and team members across opensea," the note, shared with employees before being revealed on the microblogging site, reads.

"Each of the people leaving has played a critical role in OpenSea's journey. They have supported our users, championed our mission, and worked intensely to build the foundations of the NFT space," it added.

He also mentioned that these employees are talented and committed and they will be missed and "we plan to treat them with great care".

Finzer said he expects that the company will see an explosion in innovation and utility across NFTs during the winter.

"With the hard (but important) changes we made today, we're in an even better position to capture what will soon become the largest market on the planet," he said.

"When the global economy is uncertain, our mission to build the foundation for new, peer-to-peer economies feels more urgent and important than ever. Winter is our time to build," he added.