"Magic Eden to shut Bitcoin and EVM markets…to phase out multichain wallet as well"

Magic Eden, a non-fungible token (NFT) platform, is said to be shutting down its Bitcoin and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based marketplaces and discontinuing support for its multichain wallet.

According to Blockspace on the 26th (local time), sources familiar with the matter said Magic Eden could formally announce the shutdown plan as early as the 28th, and is expected to close its Bitcoin and EVM marketplaces during the first week of March. It is also reported to plan to switch its cross-chain wallet to “export-only” mode in mid-March, before fully ending the service in early April. Support for Solana-based NFTs and assets, however, will remain.

The move is seen as a strategic pivot for Magic Eden, which once led the Bitcoin Ordinals market. After launching its Ordinals market in March 2023, Magic Eden captured more than half of total trading volume within a week, and at its peak accounted for about 80% of trading in Bitcoin Ordinals and Runes. At the time, Bitcoin-based assets made up 70% of overall market activity.

Magic Eden launched in September 2021 as a Solana-based NFT marketplace and within months accounted for more than 90% of Solana NFT trading volume. In June 2022, it raised $130 million in a Series B round at a $1.6 billion valuation, bringing total funding to $157 million.

In January 2024, it launched a multichain wallet supporting Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum and Polygon, with Android app downloads surpassing 100,000. In March that year, it also posted $734 million in monthly trading volume to rank No. 1 globally among NFT markets.

More recently, however, Magic Eden has said it will pivot away from an NFT-centric strategy toward “crypto entertainment” areas such as prediction markets. The shutdown of its Bitcoin and EVM markets and the wallet wind-down are interpreted as part of a strategy to refocus the business around Solana and concentrate on token trading and entertainment products.