Magic Eden Abandons Multi-Chain Strategy, Shifts Focus to iGaming Amid Volume Collapse
Magic Eden is shifting its focus from NFT trading to iGaming after experiencing a significant decline in volume. The company's Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH)-compatible marketplaces will be shut down as early as March, with the cross-chain wallet being wound down by April.
The decision comes after Magic Eden's $576 million monthly trading volume collapsed, with BTC-based assets contributing only $121,000 to that total in January. The company will continue to support Solana-based assets, where it generated the majority of its revenue last month.
Magic Eden was an early adopter of Bitcoin Ordinals and expanded into EVM-compatible chains like Polygon, Base, and Avalanche (AVAX). However, this experiment has now ended. CEO Jack Lu stated that the company is orienting itself around iGaming due to what he described as a 'massive opportunity' in this space.
The ME token, used for platform rewards and governance, traded at $0.12 on Friday according to CoinGecko, down 97% from its peak of $5.63 in December 2024. Lu announced plans to discontinue NFT buybacks and restructure the use of ME across Magic Eden's products.