Silicon Valley venture capital firm, Sequoia is betting big on the leading Solana NFT marketplace – Market Eden.
OpenSea happens to be the leader in the NFT space, however, its dominance seems to be diminishing. There are now new platforms backed by some of the biggest investors that may have contributed to this trend.
Magic Eden’s $27 Million Funding Round
According to the latest reports, Magic Eden is set to announce $27 million in Series A. Leading the round is Sequoia Capital, while other investors include Paradigm and Solana Ventures. The platform has declined to reveal its valuation, but the latest capital infusion will be deployed to expand its services.
The latest news comes just a week after Magic Eden teamed up with sports entertainment platform Overtime to roll out an NFT collection that aims to improve fan engagement and exclusive experiences.
Solana or Ethereum: The Next NFT Hub
Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire believes one of the world’s popular venues for NFTs – OpenSea – has a weakness since it mainly relies on a less efficient blockchain, Ethereum. Despite being a startup, Maguire has high hopes for Magic Eden. He said,
“The bet was that they would move fast and seize that advantage before OpenSea could enter Solana.”
OpenSea has also been hurt by the significant negative press that made rounds this year. Its trading volumes and sales have also taken a hit. Hence, investors turning to newer platforms isn’t surprising.
Data from CryptoSlam reveals that Solana has garnered a total of $116,193,618 from sales over the past 30 days. During the same period, Ethereum’s numbers stood at $1,865,220,512. So far, Solana has attracted mostly retail investors who have been massively impacted by high Ethereum transaction gas fees.
It is still early to speculate on Magic Eden’s dominance in the sector at a time when NFT sales have gone down tremendously. While Magic Eden dominates NFT trade on the Solana blockchain, overall, it’s still only the ninth-largest NFT marketplace.
But its co-founder Zhuoxun Yin, a former Coinbase product manager, is convinced that Solana has many advantages over Ethereum, especially in areas such as video games, where NFTs should be traded frequently. The executive said,
“Gaming NFTs will be on places like Solana. They’re not going to be on Ethereum.”
