By James Davis
On Thursday, top Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden announced several initiatives aimed at strengthening its position as a market leader. The platform said it would offer free SOL to certain NFT traders.
Along with that, Magic Eden revealed it would start aggregating NFT listings from its rivals, giving users a single destination to explore and compare prices of NFTs across multiple Solana-based marketplaces. The firm also plans to abolish the ‘co-sign’ feature, which for a long time has blocked NFTs on Magic Eden from being aggregated by competitors.
Moreover, the $1.7 billion company has disclosed that its marketplace’s smart contract will be open-sourced before the year ends.
These moves come after Magic Eden’s rivals recently criticized the marketplace for adopting a closed-source code and discouraging composability across platforms.
Further, some NFT enthusiasts still wonder if Magic Eden will continue using its escrow contract that provides custody for traders’ listed non-fungible tokens. NFT fans consider this a massive security threat. Our efforts to reach out to Magic Eden for clarification were unsuccessful.
Magic Eden’s Latest Reward Program
Magic Eden’s attempts to attract more traders have led the marketplace to adjust its maker fees temporarily to -0.25%. This means traders on the platform will get paid to purchase or sell NFTs. For example, if an NFT trader lists their digital artwork for 1000 SOL, they will receive $1000.25 in case it sells.
Similarly, users who want to acquire certain NFTs will receive a 0.25% discount on the buy price.
Possible Reason Behind Magic Eden’s Move to Reward Traders
This move is likely fueled by the rise of the NFT marketplace Tensor. Last month, Tensor dominated the Solana NFT market for a few days after offering its loyal traders various rewards. At the time, Tensor developers urged Solana NFT traders to abandon Magic Eden because it had left projects built on this blockchain to promote those on Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Polygon. In response to this claim, Magic Eden said it would soon shift its focus to Solana.
Meanwhile, data from Tiexo indicates that Magic Eden had a market share of 44% last week compared to Tensor’s 40%. This week, Magic Eden’s market dominance has increased to 51%, while Tensor’s has declined to 35%.