Top Solana NFT marketplace Magic Eden raises $27M

Magic Eden, a leading NFT marketplace on Solana, announced a $27 million Series A round on Monday. The funding round was led by Paradigm, with participation from Solana Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Electric Capital, Variant Fund, and Kindred Capital.

Magic Eden intends to channel the funds toward product development, staff expansion, and future partnerships. Co-founder and CEO Jack Lu said in a statement:

Magic Eden will be much more than a place for users to purchase NFTs. Our goal is to make a clear distinction between Web2 and Web3, allowing creators, collectors, and supporters to engage with each other and lead the direction of their online interactions.

One of the initiatives that the company will probably build-out is the MagicDAO, a recently launched decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) gated by Magic Ticket NFTs. Magic Eden airdropped 30,602 of the NFTs to users who had linked their Discord and email accounts to its marketplace. For now, the tickets provide access to the startup’s Discord channel, with plans to involve holders in governance decisions in the future.

In terms of trading volume, Magic Eden is currently the largest NFT marketplace on the Solana blockchain, according to data dashboard DappRadar. Since its launch last year, the company has recorded over $736 million in total trading volume, with other marketplaces like Solanart and DigitalEyes Market following behind. However, its overall volume is still miles away from OpenSea’s $23.5 billion.

Although Magic Eden is not a direct competitor to OpenSea, the former may soon have to contend directly with the world’s largest NFT marketplace. In January, leaked screenshots shared by renowned blogger and hacker Jane Manchun-Wong suggested that OpenSea was working to enable support for Solana-based NFTs.

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