Magic Eden, the top Solana-based NFT platform, has received $130 million at a valuation of $1.6 billion, a huge raise in an otherwise bearish crypto market.
The marketplace raised $130 million in a Series B fundraising round headed by Electric Capital and Greylock, with aspirations to extend beyond Solana to other blockchains.
According to a press statement, Magic Eden wants to utilize the capital to grow its core and secondary marketplaces, as well as explore “multichain opportunities.”
“NFTs are exciting, social and cultural experiences that bring connectivity to the world. We’ve made the conscious decision to support both our creators and users through this tremendous era of growth for both the company and the industry,” Jack Lu, CEO of Magic Eden, said in a statement.
The round, which closed on Tuesday, values the platform at $1.6 billion, placing it on line with OpenSea’s Series B financing, which saw the biggest Ethereum NFT marketplace reach a $13 billion valuation in a Series C round earlier this year.
The Magic Eden raise comes amid an otherwise gloomy crypto environment, with prices for underlying NFT ecosystem currencies like SOL and ETH down as much as 80% from all-time highs in the previous year.
Institutional investors are beginning to pull back on their investments given the current status of the crypto market, but CEO Lu seems unconcerned.
“Markets will do what markets do – we are excited to build on a 10+ year time horizon,” he said via email, adding:
“We see this capital as a measure of our investor confidence in Magic Eden and the broader crypto market. The additional investment will allow us to achieve our goal to onboard the next billion users to Web3 without being constrained by market cycles.”
Magic Eden is currently the kingpin of the Solana NFT community, handling over 90% of the ecosystem’s volume and gaining popularity in recent months. In terms of daily transactions and volume, the marketplace is currently on par with OpenSea.