Overview

• The company is laying off more than 50% of its roughly 250 employees and plans to shutter offices in Argentina, Uruguay, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey, and its base in Lyon, France.
• Co-founders Arthur Madrid and Sébastien Borget have stepped back from daily roles, with leadership reported variously as Animoca’s Yat Siu overseeing operations or Robby Yung taking the CEO post.
• Animoca Brands, the majority owner, is moving to directly oversee The Sandbox as the platform executes a sweeping restructuring.
• Daily active users have dwindled to a few hundred, with some reportedly bots concentrated in South America, while the SAND token has fallen about 90% from a 2021 market cap near $6.2 billion and was recently around $0.28.
• French outlet The Big Whale reports an unconfirmed plan to launch a memecoin platform on Base modeled on pumpdotfun, as questions persist over a crypto treasury estimated at $100–$300 million and sparse governance participation, including 291 votes across three August proposals.