Magic Eden, the leading cross-chain NFT marketplace, announced today that it plans to unveil its Bitcoin Ordinals Launchpad tomorrow, April 7th. According to a press release from the company, the Launchpad will give Bitcoin Ordinals creators a “safe and secure platform” to launch their collections.
Zhuoxun Yin, the co-founder of Magic Eden, said that with Bitcoin Ordinals, “content can be preserved forever” and that the company is proud to help creators and the Ordinals community grow together. In addition, he called Bitcoin the grandfather of all blockchains and said that it become the true home for digital artifacts.
Ordinals — the name for non-fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain — have risen in popularity over the past three months, with now hundreds of thousands of them inscribed. The allure of the Bitcoin blockchain is manyfold: It carries a pedigree that other blockchains may lack and because the art is inscribed directly onto the blockchain, it is immutable, meaning that it can’t be changed.
Magic Eden has become the de facto marketplace leader in the Ordinals market, capturing 70% of trade volume even after just launching weeks ago. The company is known for its cross-chain capabilities, facilitating NFT trading on four blockchains: Solana, Polygon, Ethereum, and Bitcoin.
Its Launchpad service offers NFT collection creators a “white glove service” that includes high-end cross-chain mint technology and mentorship. According to Magic Eden’s website, the Launchpad makes minting “simple, seamless, and secure.” As such, it may appeal to collection creators who are not tech savvy or are new to the NFT space.
For the debut of its Bitcoin Launchpad, Magic Eden has partnered with Godjira, an established Ethereum NFT collection, who plans to launch on Bitcoin. In addition, four more projects — Genopets, Lazy Lions, Lil Durk, and Humanoids — will be launching collections via the platform in the first week that it goes live.
Bitcoin Ordinals Market Heats Up
Bitcoin Ordinals started in January of 2023 when developer Casey Rodarmor added functionality to the Bitcoin blockchain to “make Bitcoin fun again.” The result has been a resounding success: It became the talk of the NFT space quickly and soon established collections from top blockchains were creating their own Ordinals. Some of them include:
- Yuga Labs’ Twelvefold: A 288-Ordinals generative art collection that explored the concept of time. The Ordinals set raised $16.5 million for the Bored Ape Yacht Club creators, although it was met with some criticism.
- Dust Labs’ DeGods: Earlier this year, Dust Labs launched “DeGods on Bitcoin,” an Ordinals collection inspired by the popular DeGods collection that, at the time, was on Solana. It quickly became the top Ordinals collection in trading volume.
- OnChainMonkey: One of the surprises in the NFT bear market, OnChainMonkey continued its momentum by creating a Genesis collection on the Bitcoin blockchain. The collection quickly rose in stature, as OCM became one of the first NFT collections to launch an Ordinals set.
The Bitcoin Ordinals movement has brought a great deal of fun to the NFT landscape and a much-needed breath of fresh air during tough market conditions. Magic Eden has been a first mover, for marketplaces, in the space, which speaks to their ability to innovate. Here at Rarity Sniper, we’ll pay close attention to further developments in the story.
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