Magic Eden, the biggest marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Solana blockchain, has secured $130 million in a Series B fundraising round and is currently worth $1.6 billion.
Electric Capital and Greylock Partners led the investment, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Paradigm, and Sequoia Capital, according to a Tuesday release.
Three months have passed since Magic Eden announced a $27 million Series A funding round headed by Paradigm. According to Dealroom estimates, the company was valued at up to $162 million at the time but did not publicly reveal its worth. In other words, Magic Eden’s value has increased roughly ninefold in only three months.
Magic Eden’s rapidly expanding market position on Solana drew investors, co-founder and CEO Jack Lu told The Block in an interview.
The Block’s Data Dashboard ranks Magic Eden as the third-largest NFT platform in terms of the trading volume. In October, less than a year ago, it was released.
Lu said that Magic Eden’s recent growth into gaming NFTs was another reason investors wanted to participate in the round. “Investors were enthusiastic about our growth in this sector given our great start,” he said.
Magic Since its inception in March of this year, Eden claims its games discovery site, Eden Titles, has published 45 games and attracted 90 percent of all gaming NFT traffic on Solana.
Notably, Magic Eden closed the round despite the current market decline. The financing was completed early this month, according to Lu, and is an equity round.
Expansion plans
With newly acquired funds, Magic Eden intends to enhance its core peer-to-peer NFT marketplace and its Launchpad marketplace, which assists artists in launching their own NFT collections.
Magic Eden seeks to support artists and end-users throughout their NFT experience, from purchasing through community interaction, according to Lu.
Magic Eden, which now supports just Solana, wants to debut on other blockchains in the future. In the interview, Zhuoxun Yin, the company’s other co-founder and chief operating officer, refused to identify these blockchains but said, “we are evaluating all the ones you would anticipate.”
More particular information on the multi-chain growth plan would be revealed “in the coming weeks,” he said.
Lu said that Magic Eden presently employs around 100 people and aims to hire approximately 50 more in the next six to twelve months. Among the positions he is filling are engineering and product management positions.
Magic According to Lu, Eden is also “conceptually open” to the possibility of creating its own token. “However, we do not have precise intentions to disclose at this time,” he continued.
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