In brief
- Magic Eden’s multi-chain approach is coming to an end.
- The NFT marketplace will stop supporting assets tied to Bitcoin and Ethereum.
- The company is leaning into an iGaming platform.
Magic Eden co-founder and CEO Jack Lu disclosed on Friday that the NFT marketplace and token trading platform is ending support for Ethereum-compatible and Bitcoin-based assets.
In less than two weeks, Magic Eden users will no longer be able to trade assets associated with the networks on its platform, Lu said on X. That includes assets minted on Ethereum scaling networks like Polygon and Base, as well as Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes meme coins.
Magic Eden’s self-custodial wallet will see similar changes, Lu said, with plans to no longer support the assets at the beginning of April. He said the marketplace will continue to support those within Solana’s ecosystem, where the NFT marketplace debuted in 2021.
The move, which was first reported by Blockspace Media, marks a significant shift in Magic Eden’s approach to user adoption. The company had previously become the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume by pioneering a multi-chain approach, while cornering the once-hot market for Bitcoin-based Ordinals years ago.
Magic Eden signaled last year that it was building beyond the ever-cooling market for digital collectibles by acquiring Slingshot Finance, a mobile-first crypto trading application. At the time, efforts to break into the market for meme coin trading were poised across multiple chains.
In January, Lu unveiled Dicey, saying that the crypto casino and sportsbook would position the company to capitalize on a “speculation supercycle.” On Friday, Lu said that the company is continuing to orient itself around “the massive opportunity in iGaming.”
As part of the shift, Lu said that the company will no longer conduct NFT buybacks. Meanwhile, the firm will seek to refine how its ME token is used across products, Lu said.
Magic Eden’s ME token, which can be used to earn rewards and participate in the project’s governance, changed hands around 12 cents on Friday, according to CoinGecko. The token’s value has plummeted 97% from a peak of $5.63 after its debut in December 2024.
Since its debut, Magic Eden has raised $140 million in total funding, according to Crunchbase. That includes a $130 million Series B funding round in 2022, which valued the firm at a whopping $1.6 billion, and was co-led by venture capital firms Greylock and Electric Capital.
Magic Eden was among earliest adopters of Ordinals and Runes, racing to support the assets that resemble NFTs and meme coins on Bitcoin before most top-tier exchanges. The company continued to solidify its lead with Ordinals and Runes, even as those markets cooled.
Last month, Magic Eden generated $576 million in trading volume across digital collectibles, according to a Dune dashboard. Although that activity was mostly centered around NFTs on Solana, $121,000 in trading volume came from Bitcoin-based assets over the period.
It appears that some projects are ready to take up the mantle as far as Bitcoin-based assets go. Taproots Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer said on X earlier this month that a dedicated marketplace for the Ordinals-focused project is “coming soon.”
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