Sky Mavis Announces 21% Workforce Reduction

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

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

Core Products and Future Growth

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

In a November 23 statement, 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 company’s budget or financial situation. This is a strategic move to allow for clearer focus and position Sky Mavis for growth in 2025 and beyond,” said the co-founder.

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

At the time, Sky Mavis focused on enhancing 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-earn (P2E) gaming space. It became particularly popular during the pandemic, offering users a way to earn income through gameplay.

To support Axie Infinity, the company developed its blockchain, Ronin. In the announcement, Trung described the protocol as one of the most utilized blockchains globally, boasting over 1.1 million daily active addresses and over 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 hack of the Ronin bridge, which resulted in a $615 million loss in cryptocurrency.

In response, the company introduced a free-to-play version of Axie Infinity and pivoted Ronin into a platform for broader Web3 gaming projects.

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

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