[whoisjuan]

This. Maybe you have faith in the product and the IP, but these are worthless if the people who can help transfer all the knowledge to a possible acquirer are gone.

If the founders were the only engineers maybe there's still some chance that they can manage an acquihire for themselves, but it would be worth pennies, and any transaction will likely be below your option execution price.

Firing all the employees is a rather transparent signal that liquidation events (or any financial events) are off the table, and founders are simply debulking expenses to kill the company.

Also, the simple and straight forward solution to your problem is simply to ask them. These might be hard times for the founders but a short and candid message asking about the situation wouldn't hurt. They probably don't want you or anyone spending their money in a dead company.