Magic Eden Axes Bitcoin and Ethereum Marketplaces Amid iGaming Shift

Magic Eden is abandoning its multi-chain strategy and shutting down its marketplaces for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) as early as March. The platform's CEO, Jack Lu, said the company is orienting itself around 'the massive opportunity in iGaming'. Magic Eden will retain support for Solana-based assets, which generated the majority of its $576 million monthly trading volume in January.

The decision to exit Bitcoin and Ethereum comes after a significant drop in NFT trading volume. Bitcoin-based assets contributed just $121,000 to Magic Eden's overall trading volume last month. The company had initially expanded into EVM-compatible chains like Polygon, Base, and Avalanche (AVAX) as part of its cross-chain dominance bid.

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. The company also acquired mobile trading app Slingshot Finance last year, a move initially framed around meme coin trading across multiple chains.