For the first time in NFT history, Ethereum’s OpenSea has been outperformed by another platform: Solana’s Magic Eden. With around 500,000 new users in the past month, Magic Eden has skyrocketed across all metrics as an NFT marketplace. While transaction numbers and volume decreased by as much as 35% – 50% on OpenSea, Magic Eden is on the come-up.
OpenSea 7 day statistics:
121K new users
300K transactions
$388 million in volume
$72K total value of assets
Magic Eden 7 day statistics:
126K new users
2.28 million transactions
$150 million in volume
$195K total value of assets
Is there a reason for this transition from OpenSea to other NFT marketplaces – particularly Magic Eden? There are a few answers to this:
1. Ethereum is currently functioning at a slow rate while requiring extremely high transaction fees. This is hindering activity on the Ethereum blockchain, especially in the NFT space on OpenSea, where profits are marginalized due to the expense of gas fees.
As a result, OpenSea NFTs are cooling off, and Ethereum will likely remain in this downward cycle until August when the anticipated merge to Ethereum 2 is finally expected to happen.
2. NFTs are becoming increasingly popular and accessible across exchanges and wallets too, not just strictly NFT marketplaces.
3. Blockchains such as Solana, Avalanche, Chainlink, Binance, and Polygon have developed strong NFT projects and attracted large communities. Many of these top NFT projects compete or even outperform OpenSea NFT projects in activity, price, and market cap.
Let’s talk about Magic Eden
Magic Eden offers a complete contrast to that of OpenSea. High performance and low fees are already attractive compared to what Ethereum offers. Not to mention scalability, which is something the Solana blockchain is designed to handle without issues.
This NFT market isn’t a copy of OpenSea in any way, shape, or form. The app opens up with a very concise and easy-to-follow layout, recommending new visitors with guides, explanations, and videos on how to navigate their website and additional NFT activity. The NFTs displayed on Magic Eden have their own distinct appeal and styles, as well as owner benefits and features that are unique to the marketplace.
Why the move to Magic Eden is authentic
At its peak in 2021, Solana created a frenzy of holders taking their astronomical profits and converting them into Solana NFTs. While the rush spiked a huge increase in volume and users in Solana NFTs, the moment was not authentic as it was driven mostly by the abundance of wealth that Solana users had found themselves with after a strong bullish season. The hype was short lived and NFTs rapidly declined in transactions and users.
However, this reinforced Solana’s foundation in the NFT space and created a real contending marketplace to OpenSea, in Magic Eden.
Here’s what’s different now. Solana’s token is quite stagnant and retracing in a similar fashion to the rest of the market. This is a good sign for Magic Eden’s adoption hype, as it’s not propelled by profits from Solana holders. This suggests actual product and network adoption is taking place.
The project communities in Solana that are successful have a distinctive nature about them, and even Solana NFTs as a whole. Countless projects on Magic Eden (eg. Trippin’ Ape Tribe, Okay Bears, DeGods, Solana Monkey Business) share several core features.
They begin with a far more humble mint price in comparison to OpenSea.
Projects are grounded in delivery in accordance with Magic Eden’s requirements, making it more difficult for rug pulls to occur (of course they still do however).
Less exclusivity and lower fees, creating a far more welcoming and accessible platform for newcomers, showcasing the best way to gain new users.
Bear market fluctuation or a real shift?
NFTs are a cultural creation right now. The culture of the people is judge and jury as to where the industry fluctuates. What we’re seeing right now is a cultural shift from the ERC Ethereum token standard and acceptance that it is not the exclusive means to which NFTs are tied, suggesting that NFTs may exist on any blockchain with the capabilities to deliver user experience and value.
However, there’s nothing suggesting OpenSea is about to be replaced. OpenSea is experiencing an extreme low right now, something which it will undoubtedly bounce back from in the coming months. The prolonged bear market has made Ethereum far more difficult to use due to expenses on the network.
In contrast, the shift from OpenSea to Magic Eden isn’t just hype, but rather an authentic transition. Leaders in the NFT community have been aiding Magic Eden’s upward momentum, as the collective mindset jumps from OpenSea to Magic Eden, stealing more of OpenSeas user base and propelling its downward cycle. While this won’t be permanent for OpenSea, Magic Eden is proving it is a leader in the NFT industry.
