Magic Eden holds a 61% share of the Bitcoin NFT market, leading all marketplaces by a large margin. Its share is ahead of second-place OXK (29% market share) and much higher than third- and fourth-place finishers Unisat Wallet and Ordinals Wallet (9% and 1% respectively). Year-to-date, Magic Eden has facilitated $1.8 billion in NFT trading volume on the Bitcoin blockchain.
The preeminent cross-chain NFT marketplace, Magic Eden launched its Bitcoin marketplace in March of 2023, just as the Ordinals hype was beginning to build steam. Soon after, it debuted a launchpad for Bitcoin Ordinals creators to give them a “safe and secure” place to mint their collections. As such, it became a de facto “first mover” in the Ordinals space among top marketplaces.
Magic Eden’s dominance in the Bitcoin NFT space has catapulted the marketplace to the top across all chains for the sixth month in a row. All told, it has a 37% overall market share with a 50% share of Solana NFT trading volume (nearly tied with Tensor) and 6% on Ethereum (behind Blur and OpenSea). Statistics were not available for Magic Eden’s share of trading volume on the other two chains it serves — Polygon and Base.
Recently, Magic Eden announced that it would be launching its own token, which may also be affecting trading volume on the platform. Users will be able to claim the token, called “ME,” through the Magic Eden wallet, although U.S. residents cannot claim due to regulatory uncertainty in the country.
The report on the state of the NFT marketplace wars came from CoinGecko, a company that provides information about the cryptocurrency market. For its report, it mined the data on Dune Analytics, another popular resource in the Web3 space.
Magic Eden Innovates in Web3
Even though the NFT market has struggled in recent years, that hasn’t stopped Magic Eden from innovating in the space. After its humble start of 0.1% market share the month of its debut, the company has consistently outmaneuvered its competitors, building on its cross-chain strategy to launch a wallet and become the dominant NFT marketplace in the space. It has:
- Partnered with Yuga Labs to launch an Ethereum market that protects creator royalties
- Formed an alliance that aimed to preserve creator royalties in the NFT industry
- Partnered with Sappy Seals for tokenized physical collectibles
- Debuted its cross-chain Web3 wallet on desktop, then on mobile
- Created a rewards program for traders that use the Magic Eden platform
- Built a $1 million creator fund on Polygon for NFT projects
- Debuted marketplaces on five different chains, including, most recently, Base
As Magic Eden’s market share shows, it has gained the trust of NFT enthusiasts for its innovation, consistency, and strong usability. And its cross-chain strategy appears to be paying off, as it is the leader of all marketplaces even though it is not dominant on the chain with the most NFT trading volume (Ethereum). It still has confidence in NFTs, and that bodes well for the space.