Magic Eden NFT goes back to its Solana roots and pays traders to use the platform with a so-called “Second Act” initiative.
This will include efforts to launch NFT aggregation on Solana, open source more of its code, and — for a limited time — a small bonus payment for traders to buy and sell Solana NFTs.
Magic Eden has in recent months lost its long standing position as the second most popular NFT marketplace after OpenSea. It now only holds 2.1% of the total NFT market share in terms of trading volume, according to CoinGecko. While Magic Eden is Solana’s flagship market, it has also faced blockchain pressure from start-up market Trensor, which raised $3 million in a seed round in March. Magic Eden is valued at $1.6 billion after a $130 million funding round last June.
In a bid to compete with OpenSea and Blur, which use crypto airdrops to incentivize traders, Magic Eden will charge -0.25% for NFTs. You will essentially pay SOL traders when they sell Solana NFT or when their offer to buy Solana NFT is accepted. If you list an NFT for 100 sol, or about $1,924, on the market, when you sell you will get 100.25 sol, an additional $5, Magic Eden wrote in a Twitter thread. If you bid on an NFT of 100 sol, you will receive an additional 0.25 sol once your bid is accepted. The amount of SOL the user receives will be higher depending on the price of the NFT.
The new initiative and refocus on Solana comes as the market expands to also include Ethereum and Bitcoin NFTs. The pivot back to Solana is also a vote of confidence in the blockchain, which has seen a flurry of new activity and is the third most active after Bitcoin and Ethereum in terms of trading volume.
The initiative has been mostly received by NFT traders on Crypto Twitter. Others rudely pointed out that the way Magic Eden wrote “Chapter Two” could easily be confused.
I read this as Chapter 11, Chapter 2 is much better 😆🎉
– Permissionless II (Permissionless) May 25, 2023
I love the direction Magic Eden is taking. The recent moves are great for the NFT ecosystem and Solana NFTs. Healthy competition often fosters innovation and drives progress. # Imagine # denied # Hahaha #market_market https://t.co/1OtXOyqXba
– Zoe (@zozosfriesverse) May 25, 2023
What’s really amazing is that I haven’t seen anyone other than one or two people outraged by the glamorous charm of this ad
Do you understand how crazy this is?
– notbunjil May 25, 2023
Magic Eden did not immediately respond to a request for comment luck.
