WazirX shuts NFT marketplace as crypto market slumps

Indian crypto exchange WazirX on Wednesday rolled the shutter down on its NFT marketplace.

The website displayed, “The WazirX NFT marketplace has been sunsetted. You can still trade your NFTs on OpenSea."

WazirX started with the NFT market place in February 2021. At the time of the launch, the company had said that NFTs available were minted on its parent company Binance Technology's blockchain technology.

Binance, the world's biggest crypto exchange acquired WazirX in 2019.

This comes amid a long crypto winter that has witnessed trillions of dollars being wiped out from the industry over the last one year. Two initial strikes that broke the industry's back were the bankruptcies of Three Arrow Capital and Celsius Network. The crisis only deepened when lid was blown off from Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX. The ongoing legal proceedings and the investor money that's been at stake has only increased the concerns towards crypto.

WazirX, in India laid off about 40 per cent of its workforce in October last year to 'weather the crypto winter'.

Meanwhile, Indian-origin crypto firm Polygon on Tuesday  laid off 100 employees which is about 20 per cent of its workforce. The company combined multiple business units earlier this year. It is the latest organisation in the crypto industry to announce job cuts.

The job cuts come after the company announced restructuring on January 11.

Read: Mark Cuban-backed Indian blockchain firm Polygon cuts 20% of workforce