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- The former CFO did not give a specific reason for his departure
- He noted he will remain in an advisory capacity with OpenSea
- In December 2021, Roberts was appointed as the OpenSea chief financial officer
Brian Roberts, the chief financial officer of the nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea, is the latest well-known Web3 executive to leave in the current bear market after only 10 months in the position.
The former CFO of Lyft and OpenSea said in a LinkedIn post on Oct. 7 that it was time for him to come ashore from the open seas. He didn’t say why exactly, just that he would be staying on as an adviser to the company going forward.
After seven years at Lyft, Roberts was named chief financial officer of OpenSea in December 2021. Additionally, he has held corporate positions at the technology company Mircosoft and Walmart in the United States.
Roberts’s core responsibility included growing the finance team
Roberts was one of a long line of tech veterans who joined Web3 over the past few years. Others include Surojit Chatterjee, a former vice president at Google, who joined Coinbase as chief product officer in 2020, and Pravjit Tiwana, a former executive at Amazon, who joined Gemini as chief technology officer in January 2022.
During his time at OpenSea, one of his primary responsibilities was to expand the finance team. Roberts noted in his Linkedin post that he had the rare opportunity to literally build a team from the ground up and handpick game-changers, the author says.
His statement says that he has been working closely with CEO Devin Finzer and vice president of strategic finance Justin Jow to make sure there is a smooth transition. This could mean that Jow will step up and take over the executive position that has become vacant.
Roberts maintains that despite his departure from the position of chief financial officer, he remains extremely bullish on web3. Notably, Roberts resigned on the same day that another OpenSea executive did the same.
Ryan Foutty, OpenSea’s vice president of business development, made his resignation from the company after 18 months in an Oct. 7 LinkedIn post. Since working out of co-founder Alex Atallah’s basement, Foutty said the business had come a long way and wished his “crewmates” well.
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NFT trading volume has plunged 98%
During the downturn in the market, just the most recent crypto executives to step down are Roberts and Foutty. NFT trading volume has decreased by 98%, going from $6.2 billion at the end of January to $114.4 million. The NFT marketplace has also experienced setbacks, including a significant drop in daily trading volume and a 20% staff reduction in July.
The beginning of an ongoing crypto bear market in May marked the beginning of a steep decline for the market as a whole.
FTX US president Brett Harrison, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell, MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, and Genesis Trading CEO Michael Moro are among the other prominent executives who have announced their resignations.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
