The Near Foundation, a nonprofit associated with Near Protocol, has announced a workforce reduction affecting approximately 40% of its employees.
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Near Foundation revealed plans to lay off around 35 staff members following a recent internal review. Illia Polosukhin, the CEO of Near Foundation and co-founder of Near Protocol, explained that the layoffs would primarily impact teams in marketing, business development, and community management.
Polosukhin stated that the decision to significantly reduce the foundation's core team was driven by a review process that identified inefficiencies, with individuals working at a slower pace while attempting to handle too many tasks simultaneously. He added, "Following this review, we have decided to significantly consolidate the foundation’s core team and focus on narrower, higher-impact activities."
Despite the layoffs, Near Protocol's engineering team and Near contributor Pagoda will continue their regular operations. The Near Foundation expressed its commitment to assisting laid-off employees in finding new job opportunities within the Near ecosystem, the broader Web3 industry, or elsewhere.
Polosukhin emphasized that the layoffs were part of a broader, long-term decentralization effort. He stated, "Over time, the foundation's footprint will continue to shrink as the ecosystem becomes further decentralized and individual nodes drive more activity on the network and across the ecosystem."
Addressing concerns about the foundation's financial position, Polosukhin mentioned that the treasury remains robust and well-managed. The treasury reportedly holds more than $285 million in fiat currency, 305 million NEAR tokens (valued at over $1 billion), and $70 million in investments and funds.
While acknowledging the layoffs, Polosukhin expressed confidence in the foundation's ability to support the ongoing growth, development, and decentralization of the NEAR protocol and ecosystem. This announcement comes amid the Near protocol's notable success, being used by three of the top ten Web3 applications and boasting a record number of daily users. Polosukhin previously mentioned that Near Protocol has over 1 million daily active users as of December 20. The Near ecosystem has experienced significant growth, with 7 million monthly active accounts, a total account count of 35 million, and an average transaction volume exceeding 2 million transactions.
