Magic Eden recently added support for NFT trading on the Polygon network, a move that will increase its ability to work with gaming projects on the network.
In fact, rather than simply acting as a venue for NFT trading, the company wants to expand and capitalize on the emerging niche of blockchain games on Polygon.
Polygon integrated into Magic Eden: here’s how it will work
The news was reported on Twitter by The Block‘s official account:
Magic Eden expands NFT support to Polygon networkhttps://t.co/m9fxkddTyx
— The Block (@TheBlock__) November 22, 2022
“Magic Eden expands NFT support to Polygon network.”
As we know, Magic Eden is the largest NFT marketplace on Solana by trading volume. Earlier this year, the project became multi-chain, releasing its marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain in August.
Polygon is now the third blockchain that Magic Eden has integrated after Solana and Ethereum. Polygon, a Proof-of-Stake sidechain that runs in parallel with Ethereum, enables cheaper transactions for Ethereum-based applications.
Leveraging Polygon, the Magic Eden team noted that it can support game developers who wish to integrate NFTs. Indeed, Zhuoxun Yin, co-founder of Magic Eden, said:
“Given Polygon’s popularity among game developers as a low-cost EVM-compatible chain, the integration of Polygon will continue to solidify Magic Eden as the go-to Web3 gaming platform.”
In addition, Yin said that by offering this integration, Magic Eden continues to remove any chain-specific barriers and open up NFTs to the masses.
Magic Eden also explained that it plans to work with game publishers in the Polygon ecosystem through a new launchpad. In fact, several game publishers, including Bora, IntellaX, nWay, Block Games, Boomland, Planet Mojo, and Taunt Battleworld, have agreed to release NFT-based game projects on Polygon via Magic Eden’s launchpad.
Launchpad, marketplace and more
Yin, following Magic Eden’s entry into Polygon, introduced the news:
“Our addition to Polygon will include a launchpad and marketplace, both coming next month and simplifying the process for NFT creators and collectors.”
Crypto launchpads are also known as crypto incubators and are platforms that enable the creation of Web3-centric projects within a designated blockchain network.
In Magic Eden’s case, its NFT market launchpad is a cross-chain on Solana, Ethereum or both and is responsible for 90% of all Solana-based NFT trading volume, according to its website.
The integration will focus on providing tools to creators, including a launchpad and marketplace linked to Polygon’s native token, MATIC, according to a statement.
Game developers such as BORA, supported by Kakao Games, IntellaX, nWay, Block Games, Boomland, Planet Mojo, and Taunt Battleworld, have already committed to the Magic Eden launchpad with Polygon.
In the long term, the partnership between Magic Eden and Polygon aims to bring more game developers and NFT games to the market, Yin said.
So far, Magic Eden has brought more than 100 games to market through the Solana and Ethereum Level 1 blockchains. Moreover, although still in the early stage of mass adoption for blockchain games, Magic Eden is strongly determined toward its goals.
Polygon: the ultimate goal is to make NFTs accessible to the masses
Today, Polygon is among the twenty cryptocurrencies with the highest market capitalization, which at the time of writing is close to $13.2 billion.
In addition, Polygon has made headlines recently for partnering with non-crypto-native companies such as Instagram, Stripe, Disney, Starbucks, and Robinhood to integrate Web3 technology into businesses.
Yin stated:
“The integration will allow us to integrate more global brands and new users into the NFT market while continuing to bring Web3 gaming to the masses. Polygon has already brought many recognized brands to Web3 which opens the door for new users to discover the many utilities of NFTs.”
The Polygon network supports more than 37,000 decentralized applications (dApps) and has had about 1.8 billion total transactions processed, according to its website. Expansion with Polygon could provide Magic Eden with the ability to tap into its ecosystem and vice versa.
After launching in September 2021, Magic Eden grew in popularity fairly quickly. On average, it has about 10 million unique user sessions per month and sees more than 20,000 NFTs traded every day, even during a market downturn, the company said.
In June, Magic Eden raised $130 million, bringing its valuation to $1.6 billion. To date, Magic Eden’s platform has a total NFT trading volume of more than $2.5 billion.
In general, the NFT market has not grown lately, as total NFT sales have declined every month consecutively since April, according to CryptoSlam data.
However, in the past 30 days, Ethereum NFT sales volume has increased by about 26%, while Solana NFT sales volume has decreased by nearly 20%, according to the data. During that time period, Polygon outperformed the Ethereum and Solana blockchains with a 71% increase in NFT sales volume.
