Magic Eden

Magic Eden operates an NFT marketplace that began with a focus on digital collectibles on the Solana blockchain, using Solana's high throughput, low latency and low transaction costs to offer lower fees and faster trading than marketplaces on other chains. The marketplace supports categories including art, collectibles and gaming items, lets users browse curated collections, participate in auctions and mint NFTs directly, and supports major Solana token standards such as Metaplex Core, Token 22, compressed NFTs, inscriptions and SPL20. Beyond Solana, the platform had extended NFT trading to Ethereum, Polygon and Bitcoin, and launched a full Ethereum marketplace in April 2023.

Product lines include Launchpad, a selective minting and marketing service for NFT creators that bundles technical minting support, an alumni Discord community, automatic distribution of collections on the marketplace and social-media marketing support; and Eden Games, launched in 2022 as a content platform for gaming NFTs with dedicated game listing pages and a content hub for developers and reviewers. Consumer-facing features include a mobile app and browser extension, packs and "Lucky Buy" mechanics, bulk listings and sweeping, escrow and advanced trading views, alongside creator tooling in the Creator Hub.

In 2026 the company narrowed its scope: it closed its Bitcoin (Ordinals/Runes) and EVM (Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche) trading platforms, placed its multi-chain wallet into export-only mode, and refocused on Solana while moving into "crypto entertainment," including an iGaming and gambling product called Dicey tied to its $ME token.

Founding story

Magic Eden was founded in 2021 by CEO Jack Lu, CTO Sidney Zhang, COO Zhuoxun Yin and chief engineer Zhoujie Zhou. Lu and Zhang had known each other since high school, where they attended the same tutoring classes; Zhang worked in startups after university, moved to the US and raised capital for a Bitcoin startup. Lu was a consultant at Boston Consulting Group before becoming a product manager at Google. Yin worked at Bain & Company, largely with healthcare startups, then joined the decentralized exchange dYdX and later Coinbase. Zhou was an engineer at Facebook and Checkr. Motivated by the potential of NFTs to reshape digital ownership, the founders built a platform for accessing, trading and interacting with NFTs.

Business model

Magic Eden earns transaction fees on marketplace activity; Launchpad projects pay no listing fee while users are charged a 2% transaction fee. The company is also building a token-linked ecosystem around its $ME token, including an iGaming and gambling platform, Dicey.

Marketplace transaction fees, including a 2% transaction fee charged to users on Launchpad collections, with no listing fee for creators.

Traction

First-day trading volume of about $50,000 in September 2021; leading Solana marketplace by November 2021; over 1,500 NFT collections listed by December 2021; second-largest NFT marketplace globally within nine months of launch; approximately 133 employees and $170 million in total funding as of a Series B stage profile. The $ME token price was reported down roughly 80% over the six months preceding February 2026.

Latest developments

In 2026 Magic Eden closed its Bitcoin (Ordinals/Runes) and EVM chain marketplaces (Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche), with trading ending in March 2026; its wallet entered export-only mode on April 1, 2026 and is scheduled for full shutdown on May 1, 2026, after which the app is to be removed from app stores. The company retains its Solana marketplace and is expanding into crypto entertainment, including the Dicey iGaming and gambling platform integrated with the $ME token.