Autograph, the star studded NFT platform cofounded by retired NFL quarterback Tom Brady, has laid off about a third of its workforce, Insider has learned.
Up to 30 employees are effected, including senior executives, according to a person familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly. Autograph employs 107 people, according to Linkedin data.
This new round of layoffs occurs months after the company parted ways with dozens of staffers in December, as Insider previously reported.
"Autograph is faced with the same market challenges as other leading technology companies that have reduced their staffing levels," a spokeswoman wrote in a statement confirming the new layoffs. "The company remains focused on building better products for fans with a strong and dedicated team."
The NFT market has has cooled considerably, with sales expected to plunge 72% this year, according to one industry estimate.
Brady, who is co-chairman of the board of directors, launched Autograph in 2021 at the height of the NFT sports boom, along with entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt and his son Dillon Rosenblatt, the company's CEO.
A modern, blockchain-enabled take on trading cards, Autograph enables users to buy non-fungible tokens featuring sports stars such as Tiger Woods, Naomi Osaka, Derek Jeter, and Wayne Gretzky.
Autograph, based in Los Angeles, closed a $170 million Series B funding round in 2021 led by Andreessen Horowitz and Kleiner Perkins with participation from former top Andreessen crypto partner Katie Haun, who raised a $1.5 billion fund in 2022.
Haun, Arianna Simpson, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Ilya Fushman, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, joined a glitzy board of directors. Other board members include Eddy Cue, senior vice president at Apple, and Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, the recording artist known as the Weeknd. Chris Dixon, a general partner at a16z, is a board observer.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of FTX, also joined the board of directors in 2021 several months after Brady and his then wife, Gisele Bundchen, invested in FTX.
