Magic Eden is another Solana-based NFT marketplace that made $75 million revenue in 2024. Earlier this month, they purchased Slingshot, a trading app designed to make cryptocurrency exchanges faster and less costly. The acquisition signals Magic Eden's intent to expand its reach beyond Solana and compete with centralized crypto exchanges by offering users more accessible trading tools.
Slingshot's platform allows users to trade tokens from a single universal USDC balance, eliminating common obstacles such as complicated wallet setups, the need for bridging assets across different blockchains, and managing gas fees. With Slingshot’s technology, Magic Eden hopes to reach multi-chain NFT marketplace capabilities to any blockchain protocol—including Bitcoin.
Slingshot’s technology will be integrated into Magic Eden. With this action, they’ll be further equipped to offer more fiat-to-crypto onramps via widely-used platforms like Apple Pay and Venmo. The firm plans to roll out generative AI-assisted tools to make it easier for users to discover and trade tokens.
"This acquisition is a major step forward in advancing the Magic Eden vision, which is to provide users worldwide with a seamless and safe way to buy and sell crypto and digital assets across all chains," - Jack Lu, CEO and Co-Founder of Magic Eden
As of April 2024, NFT trading volumes are down 19% this year. This decline happens despite the fact that the overall market is booming. This drop-off has caused NFT marketplaces like X2Y2 to shut down as they announce a lack of trading volume. Magic Eden has acquired Slingshot to expand into different verticals. This strategic decision is made to capture a broader user base by making the trading experience more simple and seamless.
"Pairing Slingshot’s team of product visionaries with Magic Eden’s best-in-class marketing and scaling capabilities accelerates our ability to have an impact on the future of crypto." - Jack Lu, CEO and Co-Founder of Magic Eden
Magic Eden feels confident that by building on Slingshot’s abstraction technology, it’ll be best positioned to compete and succeed against centralized crypto exchanges. Magic Eden makes cross-chain trading easy and helps to build an engaging user experience. With these improvements, they hope to attract a higher percentage of the cryptocurrency market.
