The cut could indicate a fall in company valuation, but Immutable denies this.Australia’s most prominent and heavily backed blockchain start-up, Immutable, has slashed the price of its shares for employees by almost two-thirds as the crypto sector reels from a series of blows, and start-up valuations fall.Forbes Australia
Rich Listers Robbie and James Ferguson are two of the three co-founders of crypto start-up Immutable.The move is positioned as a plan to help recruit and retain staff, but is also a concession the share options were not attractive enough at the higher amount. Employee share purchase pricing is not a sure guide to the value of the company, which can be calculated in a host of ways, but the fall in strike price could suggest that Immutable’s $3.5 billion valuation has also dropped.An Immutable spokesman denied the change had anything to do with the company’s valuation and was instead intended to ensure its employees had “skin in the game” with the company.
“We’ve really listened to candidate and employee feedback over the last nine months, and what came out of that listening exercise was that our [employee share option scheme] program wasn’t achieving its primary goals of attracting and motivating talent.”