Magic Eden Pulls Plug on Bitcoin and Ethereum Support, Doubles Down on Solana

Magic Eden co-founder and CEO Jack Lu disclosed on Friday that the NFT market and token buying and selling platform is ending assist for Ethereum-compatible and Bitcoin-based property.

In lower than two weeks, Magic Eden customers will now not be capable of commerce property related to the networks on its platform, Lu said on X. That features property minted on Ethereum scaling networks like Polygon and Base, in addition to Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes meme cash.

Magic Eden’s self-custodial pockets will see related adjustments, Lu stated, with plans to now not assist the property at first of April. He stated {the marketplace} will proceed to assist these inside Solana’s ecosystem, the place the NFT market debuted in 2021.

The transfer, which was first reported by Blockspace Media, marks a major shift in Magic Eden’s method to person adoption. The corporate had beforehand grow to be the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume by pioneering a multi-chain method, whereas cornering the once-hot marketplace for Bitcoin-based Ordinals years in the past.

Magic Eden signaled final 12 months that it was constructing past the ever-cooling marketplace for digital collectibles by acquiring Slingshot Finance, a mobile-first crypto buying and selling utility. On the time, efforts to interrupt into the marketplace for meme coin buying and selling have been poised throughout a number of chains.

In January, Lu unveiled Dicey, saying that the crypto on line casino and sportsbook would place the corporate to capitalize on a “hypothesis supercycle.” On Friday, Lu stated that the corporate is constant to orient itself round  “the huge alternative in iGaming.”

As a part of the shift, Lu stated that the corporate will now not conduct NFT buybacks. In the meantime, the agency will search to refine how its ME token is used throughout merchandise, Lu stated.

Magic Eden’s ME token, which can be utilized to earn rewards and take part within the undertaking’s governance, modified fingers round 12 cents on Friday, in response to CoinGecko. The token’s worth 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 complete funding, in response to Crunchbase. That includes a $130 million Sequence B funding spherical in 2022, which valued the agency at a whopping $1.6 billion, and was co-led by enterprise capital corporations Greylock and Electrical Capital.

Magic Eden was amongst earliest adopters of Ordinals and Runes, racing to assist the property that resemble NFTs and meme cash on Bitcoin earlier than most top-tier exchanges. The corporate continued to solidify its lead with Ordinals and Runes, at the same time as these markets cooled.

Final month, Magic Eden generated $576 million in buying and selling quantity throughout digital collectibles, in response to a Dune dashboard. Though that exercise was principally centered round NFTs on Solana, $121,000 in buying and selling quantity got here from Bitcoin-based property over the interval.

It seems that some tasks are able to take up the mantle so far as Bitcoin-based property go. Taproots Wizards co-founder Udi Wertheimer said on X earlier this month {that a} devoted market for the Ordinals-focused undertaking is “coming quickly.”