As of July 2024, Magic Eden has gained the top 2 in marketplace trading volume, with $139.72 million following dappradar.com. Now, it is extremely popular for Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, Base and even Bitcoin NFT! From Magic Eden sales, to scandals, and royalties, we cover it all. So, let’s dive in: What is Magic Eden NFT Marketplace, and how can you use the platform?
What is Magic Eden NFT Marketplace?
Magic Eden is a decentralised NFT marketplace. It allows users to create, buy, sell, and trade NFTs, including digital collectibles and gaming assets. The marketplace began as a Solana NFT platform, and reached ‘unicorn status’ in early February of 2023. At this time, the marketplace closed a $130 million Series B fund, with Electric Capital and Greylock, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Paradigm, and Sequoia Capital participating in the round. This round came only three months after they had raised $27 million during Series A. With this new funding, Magic Eden’s valuation hit $1.6 billion!
The NFT marketplace used the funds to expand their offerings, including multi-chain opportunities. Now, Magic Eden is home to not only Solana NFTs, but also Bitcoin, Polygon, Base, and Ethereum NFTs.
What are the Fees on Magic Eden?
Notably, Magic Eden’s transaction fees are considerably lower compared to other marketplaces. In fact, the platform is often favored over others due to its low cost. Here are all the prices you should know:
- There are ZERO fees for listing NFTs.
- The transaction fee is 2%.
- There are no fees for making or canceling a bid
- No additional charges for making bids.
- The creators can set their own royalties.
- The minimum offer price is half of the listing price.
Marketplace Features
Within the Magic Eden NFT marketplace, you can find three primary sections—Popular collections, Drop calendar, and Watchlist. While the first features the hottest and most trending collections, the second gives you the run down on upcoming mints.
Within the ‘Popular Collections’ section, you can filter collections based on the past 1 hour, 6 hours, 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days of trading volume.
As one of the largest NFT marketplaces, Magic Eden has an attribute filter option to help you choose the exact NFT you are looking for. In other words, you can filter NFTs in each collection by their background, clothes, eyes, mouth, and other attributes. Alternatively, you can filter the NFTs by status and price.
Within each collection, there are separate tabs to see any live auctions, the recent market activity, and the analytics of the collection. Analytics, in particular, is a useful tool as it helps get you up to date with everything from recent trades to top holders.
Furthermore, Magic Eden offers a separate Insights section where you can find the latest NFT statistics. Moreover, they go one step further to give you the ‘Marketplaces Breakdown’. Essentially, you can find the latest trading volume, transactions, as well as the number of active wallets, on a bunch of top NFT marketplaces.
How Do You Buy Solana NFTs on Magic Eden?
If Magic Eden sounds like the perfect choice for you, here are the steps to buy Solana NFTs on the platform:
1. First things first—you need a Solana wallet such as Trustwallet, Phantom, Solflare, or Sollet.
2. Next, get the needed amount of SOL from a supported crypto exchange. Then, send the SOL to your wallet.
3. Once your wallet is ready with enough SOL, connect it to Magic Eden. For this, click ‘Connect Wallet’ on the top-right corner of the website. There’re a lot of crypto wallets you can connect with. Follow the prompts to connect yours.
4. Now that your wallet is connected, it’s time to find the perfect NFT collection for you. You can browse the marketplace for something that piques your interest.
5. Finally, click “Buy Now” to buy the NFT of your choice. Alternatively, you can click “Make an offer” to lower the listed price, if possible.
Sell NFT on Magic Eden
It’s convenient and easy to sell or list your NFTs on Magic Eden. First of all, connect your wallet and follow these steps:
- In your profile menu, choose “My items”
- You will see a list of your available NFTs, which are ordered by collection. Click to select the collection that you want to sell
- Use “Bulk Listing” to sell multiple NFTs. Enable the label tag to use the feature
- Set a separate price or global price for your selling NFTs in the listing menu
- Plus, you are able to sell and set the price for your NFTs in the “Details” button of specific NFT
- If your NFTs have received offers from other buyers, click “Instant Sell” to sell them immediately. The highest price will be approved.
Who Created Magic Eden Marketplace?
Magic Eden NFT marketplace was founded by CTO Sidney Zhang, CEO Jack Lu, COO Zhuoxun Yin, and Chief Engineer Zhuojie Zhou. The founding team boasts a wealth of experience, having worked with tech giants like Uber, Facebook, Google, FTX, and Coinbase in the past. Additionally, the core team’s chemistry has been instrumental in the platform’s success.
“I think the success is really due to the chemistry of the team,” Tiffany Huang, Head of Marketing and Content, told NFTevening in an interview. “We’re nobodies. Like none of us is famous. We’re a bunch of 30, 31-year-olds. And it’s very egalitarian.”
How Popular is Magic Eden Marketplace?
As the leading NFT marketplace on Solana, it enjoys over 90% of the market share for secondary Solana NFT sales. According to the Dappradar report on July 3, 2024, the marketplace has a 24-hour volume of $3.57 million. Further, the total volume is $4.19 billion! At the beginning of July, Magic Eden emerged as the top-leading marketplace for trading volume in 3 significant NFT ecosystems: Bitcoin, Etherium, and Solana.
Magic Eden Games
Apart from this, Magic Eden has a dedicated section for Solana games. Indeed, the marketplace holds 90% of the in-game secondary market trading of Solana. In addition, it has collaborated with gaming projects to launch over 35 Eden Games. This includes MechaFightClub, SkateX, DeFi Pirates, and Mini Royale Nations.
Moreover, in December 2022, Magic Eden hired Chris Akhavan, former chief business officer of the blockchain gaming company, Forte, as its chief gaming officer. The hire came in an effort to build its Web3 gaming strategy. He will be helping Magic Eden expand into the Web3 gaming space, all the while supporting game developers to integrate NFTs into their games.
From Solana to Ethereum
In early August 2022, Magic Eden announced they would integrate the Ethereum blockchain. The new features include: Magic Eden List (a whitelist and audience targeting tool), Launchpad and Drop Calendar. Furthermore, the launchpad will also support ETH NFTs.
The platform is also conducting private beta tests to support the launch of a cross-currency trading product. With this new product, users would be able to browse a wide range of SOL and ETH NFTs and make purchases in SOL, ETH or credit card.
Bitcoin Ordinals on Magic Eden Marketplace
With the hype around Ordinals placing Bitcoin as a new frontier for trading digital collectibles, Magic Eden joined the trend. Introduced in January of 2023, Ordinals allow content to be inscribed on individual satoshis. To clarify, satoshis are the smallest unit of Bitcoin. In March of 2023, Magic Eden Marketplace began trading inspirations, and after just a week accounted for more than half of the Ordinals trading volume. As popular Solana project DeGods jumped aboard the Bitcoin train, they assisted in the rising popularity of Magic Eden. We can see that Magic Eden’s success stems partly from the ability to rapidly adopt and grow with the NFT space.
Magic Eden Launchpad
An interesting feature of the platform is the Magic Eden Launchpad. Put simply, this is an exclusive minting launchpad that helps creators seamlessly and securely mint their NFTs. It has an automatic distribution system that takes care of all the technicalities, allowing creators to just focus on their artwork. In short, the launchpad offers creators complete NFT minting support, automatic distribution on the platform, and outbound marketing support. However, there is a rigorous application process to accept creators on the Launchpad. In fact, it accepts under 5% of applications.
Bitcoin Launchpad
Another creator launchpad from Magic Eden Marketplace is the Bitcoin launchpad. This helps creators to inscribe their Bitcoin-based NFT collections for Ordinals. So, with the new platform, creators will be able to create tokens on the Bitcoin network with ease. Therefore, creators do not need to worry about the technical details of Taproot and inscriptions. Ultimately, the move is part of the marketplace’s efforts to make NFTs more accessible to everyone.
Magic Tickets and DAO
Magic Eden has set up its own DAO, called the MagicDAO, that is currently organised in a dedicated Magic Eden Discord channel. According to the developers, the DAO’s mission is to “work together with our community to create a stronger Solana NFT ecosystem”. The DAO’s primary functions include developing a set of rules to operate, building a treasury to fund and reward certain activities, and give voting rights to the members to make important decisions.
To facilitate this, the team started airdropping NFTs, called Magic Tickets, to all active wallets early 2022. These Magic Tickets come in three levels:
- OGs – Those who first transacted on the marketplace between Sep 17 – Oct 17
- Degens – Those who first transacted on the marketplace between Oct 18 – Dec 18
- Normies – people who first transacted on the marketplace from Dec 19 onwards
Members of each level have their own objectives. For example, OGs’ responsibilities include building better tools for NFT marketplaces, brainstorming idea to strengthen the ecosystem, and championing stronger projects. On the other hand, Normies’ objectives are to make friends, make the space more inclusive, and learn to assess the quality of projects.
Polygon-Based NFTs on Magic Eden
In November 2022, Magic Eden announced it will support NFTs on the Polygon blockchain. With this, the marketplace will be onboarding a host of gaming communities, with Polygon backed by Web3 game developers including Atari, Decentraland, and The Sandbox. According to Yin, the team chose to support Polygon because of its low transaction fees and EVM compatibility, which makes it ideal for game developers.
“We can invest, launch collections, power in-game activity and drive user acquisition for developers building on Polygon with Magic Eden,” Yin said at the time. The platform will also release a launchpad to support Web3 game developers using Polygon.
Magic Eden vs OpenSea: Which is Better?
Currently, Magic Eden is one of the biggest OpenSea competitors. So, it’s natural to wonder which of the two platforms is better for trading NFTs. Ultimately, the right marketplace for you depends on your specific NFT projects and your personal preferences. Nonetheless, before choosing a marketplace, there are certain factors you should consider, including daily and monthly trading volume, supported blockchains and wallets, platform security, and royalty fees.
Here are some of the common differences between the two platforms that will help you make an informed decision:
Wallet support:
OpenSea supports a host of crypto wallets for Ethereum NFTs, including Coinbase, Dapper, MetaMask, and more. However, it supports only a handful of Solana wallets, such as Phantom and Glow. Magic Eden, on the other hand, is superior when it comes to Solana wallet integrations. Currently, it supports Phantom, Slope, Sollet, Solflare, Clover, Ledger, Solong, and MathWallet.
Transaction fees:
OpenSea charges 2.5% of the sale price as transaction fees for both Solana and Ethereum NFTs. As opposed, Magic Eden’s transaction fees are slightly lower at 2%.
Royalty fees:
OpenSea enforces creator royalties on all its NFTs. However, it recently introduced an on-chain royalty enforcement tool to enforce creator fees on new collections. After January 2, 2023, only projects incorporating the tool will receive royalties. Those projects that do not use the tool will be set royalties that will be “optional for collectors to comply with.”
Magic Eden too has introduced a similar tool, called Open Creator Protocol (OCP). New Solana NFT projects on the platform can use this to enforce royalties on their NFTs. While Magic Eden had enforced royalty for all collections, it made it optional in mid-October.
What is the Magic Eden Loyalty Rewards Program?
In its continued efforts to reward users, Magic Eden launched a new loyalty rewards program, “Magic Eden Rewards”, in December. Essentially, it rewards users for interacting with the marketplace, with perks such as partner discounts, creator discounts, as well as, access to NFT giveaways. So, how exactly does this work?
Put simply, users earn “Magic Points” every time they make secondary transactions on the platform. More specifically, every 1 SOL traded equates to 5 Magic Points. Furthermore, there are five loyalty tiers which offer different perks based on a user’s total points. Naturally, the higher the tier, the higher the rewards.
To join the program, users simply have to sign in to the marketplace and connect their wallets. The platform will decide the first loyalty level of a user based on their activity in November and December.
Magic Eden Introduces ‘Chapter 2’
The multi-chain NFT marketplace is undergoing a transformation, launching an array of innovative features. Named the “Chapter II Initiative,” this evolution highlights a greater emphasis on Solana. Additionally, Magic Eden is introducing a dedicated NFT aggregator for the Solana blockchain! The Magic Eden Solana Aggregator is an innovative tool designed to optimize trading experiences. It will aggregate listings from multiple Solana NFT platforms. So, users will now be able to seamlessly navigate and manage listings across various marketplaces.
Moreover, they will be able to update all their listings and have immediate access to accurate, real-time floor prices and collection statistics. This enhanced accessibility empowers users to make informed decisions swiftly.
Finally, the platform will soon open-source its marketplace smart contract. Also, the marketplace will remove a “co-sign” feature.
The Scandals
As with many NFT brands, Magic Eden has had its scare of scandal. Firstly, the marketplace used improper images for some NFTs. These images included pornographic content along with stills from the TV show The Big Bang Theory. However, it gets worse. According to the marketplace, the “unsavory images” were a result of a compromised third-party image caching service.
There was also an issue where unverified NFTs were showing up as part of verified NFT collections. Due to a technical issue, Magic Eden users bought unverified NFTs. The source of the technical issue was confirmed to be a UI issue due to a new feature deployment. The Magic Eden team has verified that the impact was contained to 25 unverified NFTs sold across 4 collections. The unverified NFTs randomly popped up on the collection pages across different projects. Still, the team resolved the issue in a short turnaround time.
Magic Eden Marketplace: Final Thoughts
All things considered, the Magic Eden NFT marketplace has tremendously grown to become a significant OpenSea competitor. Its plethora of features, combined with an easy-to-use interface, make it an attractive choice for creators and collectors alike. With its considerably lower listing prices—no listing fee and a 2% transaction fee—it’s likely the marketplace is going to stick around.
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