The NFT marketplace's new chief financial officer says there was "inaccurate reporting" about the company's next steps — adding he wanted to "set the record straight."
OpenSea's new chief financial officer has denied the NFT marketplace is planning an initial public offering — despite suggesting this was the case in a Bloomberg interview.
Brian Roberts' remarks had caused a backlash among the platform's community, with many questioning why OpenSea wasn't opting to launch a governance token and airdrop it to users instead.
On Twitter, he said there was "inaccurate reporting" about the company's next steps — adding he wanted to "set the record straight."
Here's what Roberts had told Bloomberg:
"When you have a company growing as fast as this one, you’d be foolish not to think about it going public. It would be well-received in the public market given its growth."
Seeking to clarify these comments, Roberts tweeted:
"There is a big gap between thinking about what an IPO might eventually look like and actively planning one. We are not planning an IPO, and if we ever did, we would look to involve the community."
At present, Bloomberg's article remains uncorrected — and it's also worth noting that Roberts had shared the news outlet's article without complaint on Monday. The story in question definitively said that the executive is planning OpenSea's IPO.
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Baptism of Fire
It's something of a baptism of fire for Roberts, who is fresh in the job as OpenSea's first chief financial officer.
He has come to the NFT from the ride-hailing platform Lyft, where he worked for seven years.
Initial reaction to his Bloomberg interview had been far from kind. As reported by CoinMarketCap Academy, the proud owner of CryptoPunk #2070 tweeted:
"Sucks to hear @opensea is selling out and doing an IPO. Their VCs didn’t get them to where they are today. We did."
OpenSea has been rocked by a controversy or two this year. A few months ago, the marketplace "requested and accepted" the resignation of a senior employee who had purchased NFTs before they were promoted on the site's homepage — later selling them on for a profit.
