ZKsync's Matter Labs Lays Off 16% of Team

The layoffs come after its much-hyped airdrop and a rapid slowdown in the L2's usage.

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Matter Labs, the creators of ZKsync, has announced a significant restructuring, resulting in a 16% reduction in its workforce.

What’s the scoop?

  • Reasoning: The company cited shifts in market demands and the launch of the Elastic Chain scalability upgrade and the ZK Nation decentralized governance framework as catalysts for this decision. 
  • Market shift: The L2 market has been hit particularly hard over the summer, with the relatively new $ZK token among the hardest hit – down 65% since launch.

Bankless Take:

Matter Labs' decision to downsize reflects the competitiveness of the L2 landscape. The continuous slide of the chain’s TVL and activity after its June airdrop speaks to the dominance of Arbitrum Arbitrum and the Superchain, which command the majority of L2 usage, both in terms of TVL and transaction count. While ZK-proofs remain imperative for exercising the full vision of cryptographic decentralization, they continue to lag, especially if they have already launched a token.


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David C

Written by David C

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David is a writer/analyst at Bankless. Prior to joining Bankless, he worked for a series of early-stage crypto startups and on grants from the Ethereum, Solana, and Urbit Foundations. He graduated from Skidmore College in New York. He currently lives in the Midwest and enjoys NFTs, but no longer participates in them.

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