Short
- Solana-based leading NFT marketplace Magic Eden has raised $130 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion.
- The marketplace plans to expand beyond Solana to include other platforms as well.
magic edenOne NFT The market that currently commands the vast majority solana The market is gearing up for expansion. Today, the startup announced that it has raised $130 million in Series B funding, with plans to expand beyond the Solana ecosystem.
The Series B values Magic Eden — which was founded last September for $1.6 billion. This makes it the latest crypto “unicorn” to have a valuation of $1 billion or more. Electric Capital and Greylock co-led the round, which also saw new investor Lightspeed Venture Partners participate, along with previous investors Paradigm and Sequoia Capital.
Magic Eden is only three months away from its final fundraising announcement: $27 million Series A Magic Eden CEO and co-founder Jack Lu told the round that came out in March decrypt That the startup didn’t plan to raise funds again so soon, but said its growing market share and growing NFT gaming presence convinced it to build a battle chest.
“We didn’t want to feel short of resources,” he explained, “and we wanted to build for the next five to 10 years.”
Building for other blockchains
Beyond its even greater emphasis on its gaming vertical—which has A Major Rival in FractalsTwitch co-founder Justin Kan-Magic Eden’s Solana NFT gaming platform is also planning to add support for NFTs on other blockchain platforms.
“It’s really clear that we’re in and we’ll be in a multi-chain world for a while,” explained COO and co-founder Zhouxun Yin. He suggested that certain types of NFTs, such as games, artwork and music, are converging around certain blockchain platforms and Magic Eden hopes to serve them, but would not specify any blockchains that would be expected to be adopted in the market. plan is.
An NFT acts like a proof of ownership, and they are often applied to digital goods such as artwork, profile pictures, collectibles and video game items. Solana is currently the second most popular platform behind NFTs Ethereum In terms of trading volume.
The Solana ecosystem has shown notable signs of momentum in recent weeks, such as the many examples of the Solana NFT project. Top position among all ethereum projects In daily trading volume, and even on a day in which all Solana NFT trading volumes are combined ethereum tops,
Lu pointed to the diversification of use cases for NFTs on Solana, as well as the increasing influx of Ethereum NFT traders starting to dabble in the Solana space. He also suggested that Solana’s NFT trading “meta” changes frequently, with new trends appearing every two weeks and keeping NFT collectors engaged and buying.
claim of magic eden about 90% or more Of Solana NFT Secondary Market. Despite the hype, OpenSea’s leader in the entire NFT market In addition to Solana support Not much effect was seen in April. If anything, the co-founders of Magic Eden think it was a positive for the platform.
Yin said he sees the Solana and Ethereum profile picture collections “converging as one market,” which he said has been anticipating for a long time. He added that OpenSea and Rarible both connect Solana NFT at the same time, which helped validate the space in the wider NFT community.
While the broader NFT market is down in recent weeks due to the crypto market crash, and Solana (SOL) has lost nearly 60% of its USD value since the beginning of May, Lu said that Magic Eden has hit a recent high. Have seen SOL transaction volume. Week.
As described by Yin, Magic Eden is focusing on expanding to other blockchain platforms, with the co-founders believing the market has a real shot at separating “more centralized/corporate” OpenC. is, as Yin described it. Community-centered, DAO-assisted approach,
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