Magic Eden is abandoning the multi-chain strategy that briefly made it the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, shutting down its Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)-compatible marketplaces as early as the first week of March and winding down its cross-chain wallet by April.
CEO Jack Lu said Friday the company is orienting itself around "the massive opportunity in iGaming," a departure from the digital collectibles business where Magic Eden built its reputation.
The platform will retain support for Solana-based assets - where it launched in 2021 and still generated the vast majority of its $576 million in monthly trading volume as of last month, per Dune data.
Bitcoin-based assets contributed just $121,000 of that total over the same period, a figure that helps explain the economics behind the exit.
From Ordinals Pioneer to iGaming Bet
Magic Eden was among the first major platforms to support Bitcoin Ordinals after their introduction in early 2023, capturing more than half of the emerging market's trading volume within its first week of launch.
At the time, Bitcoin-based assets accounted for roughly 70% of overall NFT market activity.
The company also expanded into EVM-compatible chains including Polygon, Base, and Avalanche (AVAX) as part of a bid for cross-chain dominance. That experiment is now ending.
Lu unveiled Dicey in January - a crypto casino and sportsbook - citing what he described as a "speculation supercycle." On Friday he confirmed the iGaming direction is the company's primary focus going forward. The company also acquired mobile trading app Slingshot Finance last year, a move initially framed around meme coin trading across multiple chains.
Token and Funding Context
Magic Eden's ME token, used for platform rewards and governance, traded around $0.12 on Friday according to CoinGecko - down 97% from its $5.63 debut peak in December 2024. Lu said the company will discontinue NFT buybacks and plans to restructure how ME is used across its products.
Magic Eden has raised $140 million in total funding, including a $130 million Series B in 2022 that valued the firm at $1.6 billion, co-led by Greylock and Electric Capital.
Users holding Bitcoin Ordinals, Runes, or EVM-based assets in Magic Eden's wallet should withdraw before mid-March, when the wallet enters export-only mode ahead of full closure in early April.
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