Magic Eden is an New NFT platform made for the Solana Network that makes it easy to buy, sell, and mint NFTs. Magic Eden surpassed 350K SOL on October 5, 2021, and is still growing very fast. This is a testament to the huge demand for Solana NFTs.
What is Magic Eden NFT?
Magic Eden is a new NFT platform made for the Solana Network that facilitates the buying, selling and minting of NFTs. NFT transactions are very similar to Ethereum except that users will have a 0% listing fee and only 2% transaction fees, which lowers the barriers of entry for new and experienced NFT buyers and creators. SOL tokens are the means of paying fees.
The NFT collections within Magic Eden are growing every day, and this expansion will increase further, which will result in greater commercial activity and a stronger community.
How does Magic Eden work?
Magic Eden Marketplace
Magic Eden’s main product is its secondary market. Projects must first apply to list their NFTs on the Magic Eden Marketplace, but after approval, NFTs can be freely traded, bought and sold. The market has a number of unique features and benefits that provide users with extra value such as:
- A popular collections page that shows which designs are popular and allows users to find trending NFTs
- An attribute filter that allows users to quickly filter NFTs and find specific designs
- A comprehensive statistics page that shows each NFT’s total bid, volume percentage, minimum price and value, thus allowing users to conduct better research and make more educated investments.
Magic Eden Launchpad
The Magic Eden Launchpad is the project’s exclusive minting platform. The launchpad’s main purpose is to make minting simple, seamless and safe for creators all over the world. Magic Eden Launchpad requires minimal technical experience and provides creators with extensive support and help throughout the minting process.
To launch an NFT collection with Magic Eden, users must sign up to join launchpad. Less than 5% of all entries are accepted and only the best projects can be released into Magic Eden. This ensures that the Solana community can trust all NFT collections released on Magic Eden to be safe, reliable and high quality projects that have been carefully vetted.
Magic Eden also provides marketing support for their launchpad projects prior to launch, thus helping the project gain exposure and reach. Finally, Magic Eden also has a unique creator community where approved projects can collaborate and receive crowdsourced support and feedback. Overall, the Magic Eden launch pad is not just a minting platform, but a supportive and exclusive community that empowers creators.
Magic Eden Whitelabel Marketplaces
Magic Eden also provides technology infrastructure for other cryptocurrency projects. Magic Eden provides the underlying technology that allows projects to create their own marketplace or add mint functionality. Magic Eden’s technology currently powers Raydium, Thugstore, and Galactic Geckos, three Solana-based NFT projects.
Magic Eden DAO
Magic Eden very recently released their MagicDAO. Currently, the DAO has limited control and most decisions are still being made by the centralized Magic Eden team. MagicDAO is managed through discord and gives users the ability to vote for:
- Which NFT projects should be displayed on the market homepage
- How to use the MagicDAO treasury fund
- Certain operating rules and decision
Participation in the DAO is restricted to holders of the Magic Edens NFT, “Magic Ticket”. In total, 30.000 Magic Ticket NFTs were created and released to older and active Magic Eden users. These NFTs can be sold on the secondary market and the current minimum price is 0,16 SOL.
Magic Eden vs OpenSea
Investors who have been paying attention to the NFT industry have probably heard of OpenSea. OpenSea is the leading cryptocurrency NFT market and has captured over 80% of the world’s total NFT market share. OpenSea is primarily an Ethereum-based platform that supports NFTs built on Ethereum; as a result, OpenSea suffers from many of the same issues as the Ethereum network, such as high gas rates, high power consumption, low scalability, and low transaction speeds. Magic Eden, on the other hand, is built in Solana. This allows Magic Eden to take advantage of the faster speeds, lower rates and lower power consumption rates that the Solana network offers.
That said, just last month, OpenSea announced that it will start supporting Solana-based NFTs. OpenSea’s expansion into the Solana market is not good news for Magic Eden. OpenSea is the most dominant company in the NFT market, has much more funding, better brand recognition, more technical expertise and is incredibly well positioned to start competing with Magic Eden for Solana’s NFT market. For reference, Magic Eden had $41 million in turnover in the last 30 days, while OpenSea had $2,64 billion in turnover.
Despite this huge size difference, Magic Eden has some advantages over OpenSea. For starters, Magic Eden has the first-mover advantage in the Solana NFT market and currently dominates 90% of the market share. This will give Magic Eden some buffer space to prevent OpenSea from expanding. Additionally, Magic Eden even offers lower fees than OpenSea and provides some unique features that OpenSea does not currently offer. Finally, despite seeing a lower total trading volume, Magic Eden sees higher total daily transactions. This means that, on average, Magic Eden users are more active and engaged than OpenSea users.
How to Buy NFTs in Magic Eden?
Set up a wallet
The Solana Network, where Magic Eden is located, supports three common wallets: Phantom, Solflare, and Sollet. As an example, Phantom will be used as a guide in creating a wallet. For those who have used the MetaMask wallet, which is one of the most popular crypto wallets today, the Phantom setup process will be very familiar. Users have to go to the official Phantom website, install the browser extension and select “Create New Wallet”. From there, they just need to follow simple instructions to have an approved crypto wallet.
Buy SOL Tokens
Users are required to purchase SOL and send these tokens to their wallets to purchase NFTs in Magic Eden.
Here are the top 5 cryptocurrency exchanges that support SOL:
- Binance
- Coinbase Pro
- OKEx
- FTX
- Huobi Global
Users can check 36 other exchanges where they can buy SOL from this list. After purchasing SOL, they can now withdraw their tokens from their wallets, and the withdrawal process is similar for most exchanges.
Connect your wallet to Magic Eden
Now that you have funds in your wallet, connect them to the Magic Eden webpage by clicking “Connect” in the upper right section.
Explore NFT Collections
Once logged in, go to the search bar at the top of the page. You can search for specific NFTs in the field or simply click “Browse → Collections” on the right, which will display the latest and most interesting collections on the market.
Buy NFTs
After choosing an NFT to buy, click on it. In this example, you can instantly buy a CatPunk OG Pass at the listing price by clicking “Buy Now” or make an offer to buy at a lower price. You never know, the seller might be feeling generous. However, please note that offers are not guaranteed to be fulfilled as sellers reserve the right to accept them.
Mint NFTs applying to Magic Eden Launchpad
The platform’s ‘Launchpad’ provides a simple process for users to create and sell NFTs, eliminating the hassle of going through many technical processes just to proceed with launching digital assets. To join Magic Eden Launchpad, users must complete this form. Here’s a quick look at some of the information Launchpad will ask for from the creators of NFT:
- Project name
- Creator Name
- Project Stage
- Discord ID for main contact
- Primary contact email address
- Information about the project, the creator’s history and its objectives
- Twitter identifier
- Discord server
- Internet network location
Launchpad Criteria
Not everyone who signs up for Launchpad will be accepted, as the platform has established specific criteria for choosing the ideal NFT creators for Magic Eden. Here are the things the platform looks for in digital asset creators:
- 100% completed application form – The platform system will accept application forms that contain complete information and will automatically reject forms with omitted questions.
- PNG format – The platform currently accepts PNG-based artwork or static images.
- Full collection sister-in-law – Magic Eden does not support custom creation, such as pre-build campaigns or whitelists, and requires creators to launch their entire collection. However, it also clarifies that if creators want a custom coinage, they must exclude the artwork included in that coinage when launching NFTs on the platform.
- Fixed random price coinage – NFT creators can set the total price of their collection, and each NFT will have a fixed price that contributes to the total value of the digital asset collection.
- A clear script – Magic Eden supports creators with a long-term vision for their NFT collections. The lack of a clear roadmap is an indication that a developer is only aiming for quick profits, which will hamper the platform’s progress.
- community focused – The platform aims to create a strong community, and the key to this great goal is cooperation and collaboration among members. Magic Eden wants to have creators who not only focus on their worlds, but also want to connect with the community to strengthen each other in terms of knowledge, skills and yes, even friendship.
- Commitment – A team or individual app must clearly show their dedication to their craft and how they can support and collaborate as members of the Solana community.
What should creators expect if approved on Launchpad?
Creators will receive a confirmation message that includes an invitation to meet the Magic Eden team, action items, and specific dates to observe.
After that, they’ll have to upload files to Magic Eden, explain their marketing plans and run a devnet launch test to ensure that no technical issues have occurred in the collection. And finally, a team or an individual will now be able to live on the Magic Eden Launchpad.
Other important details about Launchpad
The team will accept applications on an ongoing basis.
For the next batch of applicants, the team will notify them by the end of October if their applications are rejected. If you haven’t received any messages, it means that the team has included your proposal for the next application. But this is not a guarantee that your application will be approved in the next round. Rejected applicants may resubmit their applications. They should equip their applications with complementary materials, such as additional details about the collection and project updates, which can strengthen their proposal and increase their chances of being accepted.
Conclusion
Magic Eden struck a great balance between opportunity and quality maintenance. Even though he’s lowered the barrier to entry for people wanting to use his platform, he assures him that he won’t just accept anyone who might ruin Magic Eden’s quality and reputation. Their thorough screening process ensures that all successful candidates can release high-quality NFTs and have the same desire to strengthen the community and provide value to their fellow creators.
