From wording on their site it sounds like that. Not that i'm against paying, i think it creates some protection against spam, but it's probably a sign that Upwork sees the writing on the wall that it will fold no matter what it does (no more funding to pour into ads to drive in masses of new clients like before, and without that, persistent client churn with almost no new ones coming in), so wants to use this last chance to grab some cash before it goes... sad
