Can Magic Eden’s Ethereum NFT Marketplace Succeed Where Others Have Failed?

A leading NFT marketplace announced that it will begin integration Ethereum ETH/USD NFTs onto its platform, which could lead to increased competition for market leader OpenSea. Can Magic Eden succeed in taking over from OpenSea?

What happened: Magic Eden announced on Tuesday its plans to add Ethereum NFTs to the platform.

Launched in September 2021, Magic Eden has been the dominant player for Solana SOL/USD based NFTs. The company reports that it has over $2 billion in lifetime trading volume for Solana transactions and represents 90% of secondary trading for Solana NFTs.

“This news accelerates Magic Eden’s efforts to expand its presence across the Web3 community by integrating the two largest blockchains for NFTs and delivering the most feature-rich multi-chain experience for creators and collectors,” the company said.

Magic Eden believes joining multiple chains will help bring in new collectors and communities and also enable NFT creators to “launch seamlessly.”

The NFT markets company will debut its Launchpad across chains with EZUa sister collection of Psychedelics Anonymous, a popular Ethereum project, in the coming weeks. EZU will launch on Magic Eden with the ability for users to create in Ethereum and Solana.

“Through our cross-chain Launchpad, creators will unlock a new set of audiences through which they can amplify and expand their projects, as well as tap into additional sources of liquidity,” Magic Eden co-founder Zhuoxun Yin so.

Related Link: NFT Marketplace Magic Eden Raises $130M: Here’s How Much The Company Is Worth Now

Why it’s important: The launch of Ethereum NFTs on Magic Eden comes after market leader OpenSea began offering Solana NFTs on its marketplace in April in a move to take share from Magic Eden.

OpenSea has been the dominant player in sales volume for NFTs and has been able to fend off competition despite its own problems and upset customers.

A new report from NFT analytics company DappRadar points to “looming NFT marketplace wars” following acquisitions and new product launches in the space. OpenSea acquired pearl, and Uniswap acquired Geniustwo companies that can help serve NFT clients.

“These acquisitions will most likely put OpenSea and Uniswap in direct competition with each other soon,” the report said.

eBay Inc EBAY bought the NFT marketplace Known originwhich brings an increased presence from a Web2 company into the NFT space.

The DappRadar report shows that Magic Eden has a 10% market share for all NFT transactions, which may come at the expense of OpenSea.

Other marketplaces such as X2Y2 and LooksRare have emerged and built small user bases, but have also faced criticism of wash trading.

One of the most disappointing entries in the NFT space may have been the launch of the Coinbase NFT Marketplace from Coinbase Inc COIN. Armed with a household name and over three million people signed up for a waiting list, the marketplace struggled to attract users and volume out of the gate.

An NFT marketplace launched by GameStop Corp GME passed 3000 Ethereum in sales volume in the first 48 hours. The marketplace from the video game company passed the all-time sales volume on the Coinbase NFT marketplace at 1,704 ETH or about $1.8 million.

A report from analytics platform Dune, as reported by Decrypt, shows 1.61 million Ethereum NFTs sold on OpenSea in July, compared to 1.54 million in the month of June. Unique traders reached 400,000 in July on OpenSea, compared to 393,000 in June.

Sales volume is still down at $495 million in July compared to $695 million in June at OpenSea.

The report also shows Solana NFT sales volume down at a reported $52.4 million across all marketplaces compared to $91.5 million in the month of June.

Magic Eden raised $130 million in Series B funding in June, valuing the company at $1.6 billion. The company said at the time that it would use the funds to expand its marketplaces and to “explore opportunities for more chains.”

“Magic Eden’s goal is to define the future of NFTs by supporting the next generation of digital creators and introducing the next billion users to Web3,” the company said at the time.

With a strong user base and dominant position in the Solana NFT space, Magic Eden could pose a credible threat to OpenSea to take at least a portion of the Ethereum NFT market share.