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You are here: Home / Bitcoin Industry News / The Sandbox Cuts Half of Its Staff, Restructures as Animoca Brands Take Control

August 28, 2025

The Sandbox Cuts Half of Its Staff, Restructures as Animoca Brands Take Control

Metaverse platform The Sandbox is undergoing a sweeping restructuring that will see more than half of its roughly 250 employees laid off, according to a report from French crypto outlet The Big Whale.

The move comes alongside a leadership shake-up in which co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sebastien Borget have been sidelined from executive roles. Their responsibilities are now being overseen by Yat Siu, CEO of Animoca Brands, The Sandbox’s majority shareholder.

The restructuring reportedly includes closing offices in Argentina, Uruguay, South Korea, Thailand, and Turkey, with the company’s base in Lyon also expected to shutter.

The measures highlight the platform’s struggle to translate years of investment into sustained user engagement. Despite raising $300 million over the past eight years, The Sandbox has seen its daily active users dwindle to just a few hundred, many of whom, sources claim, are bots operating primarily in South America.

The platform’s native token, SAND, has also performed poorly despite the crypto market entering an “altcoin season” in recent months. It had a market cap of $6.2 billion in 2021, that figure has now slumped to around $700 million following a 90% drawdown.

A key hurdle in the restructuring is what will happen to The Sandbox’s crypto treasury, which is estimated to be between $100 million and $300 million. Much of the treasury is proceeds from $350 million worth of “virtual land” sales during the metaverse peak in late 2021.

It could go to a governance vote, although it’s worth noting that there has been just 291 votes from SAND holders across three proposals submitted in August.

The Sandbox did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.

Author: Oliver Knight

Filed Under: Bitcoin Industry News

Expert Witness

Ty Sagalow head shotTy Sagalow's unique background in legal, underwriting, policy drafting and claims – and his designation as a “qualified insurance expert” by the United States District Court for the Southern District of California – offers attorneys an unparalleled resource in D&O, E&O and Cyber insurance coverage disputes. He was also named "Most Helpful Expert" in a recent $8.7M coverage decision.

Mr. Sagalow served as Chief Underwriting Officer and General Counsel for AIG Executive Liability (formerly National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pittsburgh, PA), the world’s largest carrier of Directors and Officers Liability and Professional Liability Insurance. As General Counsel, Mr. Sagalow personally wrote or led teams that wrote all the D&O policies and many of the professional liability policies that AIG produced between 1988 and 2000 – policies which continue to serve as the foundational wording for the D&O and professional liability policies in the market today. As AIG Executive Liability’s Chief Underwriting Officer, Mr. Sagalow was charged with all underwriting interpretations and decisions for AIG D&O/E&O policies. In 2009, Mr. Sagalow headed up the team that rewrote all D&O policies for Zurich North America.

Ty is a cum laude graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and holds a LLM from New York University School of Law.

Bitcoin Insurance

Combining his talents as a network security insurance expert and an insurance product development expert, Ty Sagalow is the leading expert on the unique risk and insurance needs of the bitcoin industry.

With the successful sale of BitSecure(tm), the first bitcoin theft insurance policy in February of 2015, he is the first to create a sustainable, robust insurance policy to cover the theft of bitcoins and other virtual currency backed by an A-Rated, global “top 10” Property and Casualty insurance company.

Company Profile

Innovation Insurance Group is an insurance consulting firm and insurance brokerage founded by 30-year insurance executive, Ty R. Sagalow, former Chief Underwriting Officer, General Counsel and Chief Innovation Officer at AIG, and former Chief Innovation Officer at Zurich, NA and Tower Group. IIG focuses on three core practice groups: product development, expert witness services (primarily in the Management and Professional Liability areas), and bitcoin industry brokerage services.

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