Magic Eden, one of crypto’s largest NFT marketplaces with $6 billion in total trading volume, will soon have its own token, announced the ME Foundation on Thursday.
The ME Foundation, partly staffed by former Magic Eden employees, will issue the token, which will have the ticker $ME.
Matt Szenics, director of the foundation, declined to disclose the ME token’s total supply, how much will be distributed to investors, or when it will launch.
“We’re working to deliver in the next several months,” Szenics told DL News.
He did say token holders will be able to participate in a decentralised autonomous organisation, or DAO, but declined to outline its structure.
NFT to ME
The ME token is a rebrand of a former cryptocurrency associated with Magic Eden.
In January, the marketplace posted on X about “Non-Fungible DAO and an associated token called $NFT.”
Szenics said that the forthcoming ME token is a rebrand.
He added that part of the reason for the name change is due to Magic Eden’s expansion beyond just NFTs.
In January, the NFT marketplace released its own wallet.
Marketplace wars
After reaching highs of about $6 billion in monthly trading volume in January 2022, per CryptoSlam, the NFT market has failed to keep up with crypto’s recent price rally.
In July, trading volumes hovered near $430 million — a 92% drop in the last 18 months.
During the broader downturn, Magic Eden has gained market share against industry stalwarts OpenSea and Blur.
In April, Magic Eden briefly surpassed Blur to notch the highest monthly trading volume among marketplaces, according to DappRadar.
In the past 30 days, Blur’s trading volume has surpassed Magic Eden’s, but Magic Eden still far outpaces OpenSea, per NFT Pulse.
Crypto market movers
Bitcoin rose 2.8% over the past 24 hours to trade at $60,648.
Ethereum went up 2.4% to trade at $2,617.
What we are reading
Ex-FTX exec Ryan Salame seeks to walk back his guilty plea. Prosecutors say he’s self-serving — DL News
Tether Teams Up for UAE Dirham-Pegged Stablecoin — Milk Road
State Street Partners with Taurus for Tokenization — Milk Road
Crypto Airdrops Ban U.S. Users, but Americans Are Claiming Tokens Anyway — CoinDesk
PIP Labs raises $80m from a16z and Polychain to develop Story, a blockchain for intellectual property — DL News
Ben Weiss is a Dubai Correspondent at DL News. Got a tip? Email him at bweiss@dlnews.com.