Magic Eden unveils ME token, eyeing expansion beyond NFT sector

The NFT marketplace is also planning a pivot to fungible token trading

article-image

Magic Eden and Adobe Stock modified by Blockworks

share

ME Foundation, the entity behind the NFT marketplace Magic Eden, announced the launch of its token ME on Thursday. 

Magic Eden joins a slew of other NFT marketplaces like Blur, LooksRare, X2Y2, Tensor and Sudoswap in launching a token. OpenSea is now the last major holdout in that group.

ME will be claimable via the Magic Eden wallet on mobile and desktop, while details around its supply and distribution will be announced at a later date. US users will not be able to claim ME.  

Magic Eden launched as a NFT trading platform for Solana in 2021, later expanding to Polygon and Base. 

The marketplace saw a significant jump in activity after it integrated Bitcoin NFTs during the Ordinals and Runes hype earlier this year. Since then, Magic Eden’s processed about 80% of all Bitcoin NFT secondary trading volume in the last year, according to NFT Pulse.

Across all chains in the same time period, Magic Eden processed about $2.9 billion (24%) of NFT trading volumes in total.

Amid a depressed NFT market, Magic Eden seems to be pursuing a mobile-centric strategy to pivot beyond NFT trading to enable cross-chain trading of fungible crypto tokens like bitcoin and ether.

Magic Eden’s token announcement comes off the back of its mobile app launch for the marketplace’s native wallet Wednesday, which has at least 250,000 monthly active users. 

The ME token aims to attract users from outside the Magic Eden ecosystem to adopt its open source protocols and token, while also to “incentivize users to trade any asset on the biggest chains at any time,” the official press release said.

The total NFT market cap today sits around $42 billion, still far below its all-time high of $617 billion in May 2022, according to Coinmarketcap.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Flashnote Template (6).png

Research

Trading of the President's TRUMP memecoin sent the market capitalization to over $15B, resulting in all-time highs for Solana’s Real Economic Value, DEX volumes, and stablecoin supply. This event further validates Solana as the venue for high-throughput onchain activity, with Solana DEXs and DeFi applications as primary beneficiaries, while also signaling to further experimentation, utilization, and adoption of memecoins as legitimate financial instruments for speculation, crowdfunding, or capital formation. President Trump’s continued willingness to experiment in crypto reaffirms a highly-favorable political and regulatory climate for the industry.

article-image

Solana-based social project Clout saw its downloads take off after launching an iPhone app

article-image

Leader of incoming crypto task force SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce revealed SAB 121 will be no more

article-image

A comparison of Trump and Biden’s crypto executive orders

article-image

Can THORChain weather the RUNE liquidity crisis?

article-image

Jambo’s James Zhang talked to Empire about potential future fundraising and whether or not he considers Jambo a DePIN

article-image

Perhaps it’s not an official US crypto stockpile, but World Liberty Fi is definitely accumulating