eBay Quietly Pulls Back from Web3 With UK Layoffs Amid AI, Live Shopping and C2C Strategy Shift
eBay is quietly pulling back from its once-lauded Web3 bet, with layoffs hitting its Manchester, UK office and clearing out much of the remaining KnownOrigin team as part of a broader shift toward AI, live shopping and its core C2C marketplace.
The company acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin in June 2022 at the height of the Cryptoart craze, but many questioned the wisdom of the acquisition as KnownOrigin struggled to gain ground against more established players like Blur and OpenSea and the pandemic-era bubble burst.
The writing was on the wall when eBay laid off ~1,000 people in January 2024, including over 30% of the KnownOrigin/Web3 team, and Chief Business Strategy Officer Stefanie Jay quietly exited the company.
Liz Morton
eBay announced that KnownOrigin would officially wind down its on-chain marketplace by the end of 2024, with remaining team members shuffled to other departments within the company mostly in design or focusing on other Web3 applications, including digital product passports and authentication for fashion and sneakers.
Liz Morton
It appears the remaining KnownOrigin team—along with others in eBay’s Manchester office—has now been laid off, though it's unclear if this is part of the workforce reduction announced in February 2026 or in addition to the ~800 employees already affected by those cuts.
Liz Morton
What happened to KnownOrigin's 3 cofounders after the acquisition?
David Moore left after the marketplace was shut down by eBay in 2024, Andy Gray was initially named Director Web3 at eBay before exiting completely in October 2025, and James Morgan's LinkedIn profile shows he is presently still a Director of Technology "building out eBay's Web 3.0, Connected Products strategy and product engineering capabilities" - though that may soon change if it hasn't already.
While the acquisition price was never disclosed, reports have pegged it around $68M - suggesting founders are likely far better positioned than many affected employees.
Software engineer Luke Strugnell O'Donnell posted on LinkedIn about the layoffs today, saying:
After 5 years, my time at eBay has come to an end. From being employee number 1 at KnownOrigin and riding the crest of the NFT wave, to being acquired by eBay and transitioning into the world of big tech, it’s safe to say it’s been a wild ride!
Massive thanks to Andy Gray, James Morgan and David Moore, who took a chance on an art graduate wanting to transition into software engineering, supported my apprenticeship, and put their trust in me all these years.
The cuts aren't just affecting original KnownOrigin employees, eBay is also laying off Web3 team members in development and design who joined shortly after the acquisition.
Content design lead, Emma Aldington lamented the loss of the close-knit culture of the Web3 team.
Just last year, Aldington and others extolled the virtues of that team spirit in a Medium post titled "Q&A with eBay Manchester designers."
The designers, including Aldington's manager Ray Mosley, were very candid about some of the challenges their team faced in switching from small, scrappy start up mode to one of many business units existing within the larger eBay corporate ecosystem and how the team navigated the previous job cuts.
For example, in response to a question about tight deadlines and budgets, Mosley said:
When we spoke about the wider eBay processes I understand this view, given in smaller startups and mid sized businesses decision making can be quicker.
That said I know eBay are constantly looking at planning and process improvements, we’ve even been in conversations at the wider business level this week about how that might change in the next year.
Ultimately eBay is challenged by being a large scale successful business and when you are in that position you have things to lose as much as to gain and so making changes are well considered from all angles.
And when asked about the previous cuts and whether or not he had to fight to keep the team in Manchester, he said:
This was actually handled a level above me, Director level, and I had little input.
It was more important for me to focus on how to care for both those leaving, I put out feelers to get them intros elsewhere and space for us all to say goodbye, and rebuild the culture afterwards.
I had been lucky enough to have really good leadership and change management training in my past even though eBay supported everyone really well. It meant I felt it was on me to help those left consider where their heads were at and only really ramp the work back up when we were in a good space to take those steps.
The KnownOrigin story follows a familiar path for many of eBay's recent M&A targets, though some have been more successful than others.
For example, Chedy Hampson, the founder of collectible trading card marketplace TCGPlayer, made out pretty well when he sold his company to eBay in 2022 for ~$295M - reportedly recently purchasing a multi-million dollar estate in Florida.
But many of the employees who had bought into and helped build his vision did not experience long-term benefits from buy out, eventually being laid off after forming the first union in eBay's history and enduring an almost 2 year union-busting campaign that ended with authentication operations being moved from Syracuse, NY to Kentucky.
Liz Morton
eBay's current TCGPlayer CEO, Rob Bigler, tried to paint the move as being better for both buyers and sellers in a recent interview with Variety - but conveniently left out the negative impact on now former employees as well as legal costs and regulatory fallout from the company's due diligence and business integration failures.
Jennifer Maas
eBay CEO Jamie Iannone has framed recent acquisitions as part of a broader reinvention narrative, but rising restructuring costs and repeated layoffs suggest a more uneven reality in which the integration story doesn't always match the pitch.
That track record may weigh on investors as eBay undertakes yet another strategy pivot into Live selling and refocuses on core C2C market in key categories like fashion with ~$1.2B Depop acquisition expected to close later this quarter, pending regulatory review.
Liz Morton
eBay's M&A practices have come under increasing legal and regulatory scrutiny in recent years with questions about due diligence and disclosure in the TCGPlayer acquisition and 3 years of enhanced compliance monitoring as part of a deferred prosecution agreement eBay signed with the Department of Justice after being found criminally liable in connection to a 2019 stalking and harassment campaign against journalists Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes.
Liz Morton
eBay did not respond to request for comment about the Web3 layoffs or the future of the Manchester, UK office as of time of publishing.
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