Magic Eden Launches Separate U.S. Platform Amid Opensea Legal Battles

Magic Eden, Solana’s leading NFT marketplace by trading volume, has surprised network participants with an unexpected announcement. 

On September 5, the crypto juggernaut revealed it would be splitting its trading platform into two separate sites, Magic Eden International and Magic Eden US. 

The move has drawn skepticism from the wider community, who speculate that the regulatory landscape in the U.S. could impact user eligibility for Magic Eden’s highly-anticipated airdrop.

Magic Eden’s U.S. Users Fear Airdrop Exclusion

In the official announcement, Magic Eden posited that the U.S. site “will still have great products you know and love while .IO [the international site] will give us the ability to cook up (and sauté) even more features…”, suggesting that the U.S. platform will offer a limited range of services compared to its international equivalent.

Magic Eden users have expressed concerns that these limitations could extend to airdrop eligibility. Throughout the year, Solana users based in the United States have frequently found themselves unable to claim tokens due to geographic restrictions.

Due to regulatory concerns and the ongoing scrutiny of the SEC (Securities and Exchanges Commission), many crypto projects, like Sanctum and Grass, avoid distributing airdropped tokens to U.S. users.

Regulatory clarity around NFTs and digital assets were further exacerbated in late August, when the SEC issued a Wells notice to OpenSea, an alternative NFT marketplace. 

Claiming that the platform facilitated the sale of unregistered securities, the notice serves as a preliminary warning and often precedes formal legal action.

In what could be considered a tongue-in-cheek gag, the official Magic Eden 𝕏 account also added a playful line to it’s bio, stipulating that “Tweets are only for non US Residents”.

SolanaFloor engaged the Magic Eden Foundation for clarity sounding the airdrop eligibility of its U.S. users. At press time, the Magic Eden Foundation declined to respond.

$ME Trades at $0.20 Despite Lack of Tokenomic Clarity

Since the initial announcement of the Magic Eden airdrop, pre-market trading for $ME has witnessed volatility. After opening at $0.08 on August 28, $ME pre-market prices rose as high as $0.24 before stabilizing at $0.20.

Despite attracting over $700,000 in trading volume, pre-market trading platform Whales Market has been criticized for opening a market for a coin with an unknown supply.

Without any publicly revealed tokenomics, pre-market traders are speculating on $ME at unknown valuations, which could lead to significant losses for participants.

CoinGecko Names Magic Eden Crypto’s Largest NFT Marketplace

Despite 2024’s NFT market suffering challenging conditions and diminishing volumes throughout the year, Magic Eden has managed to reassert its position as the industry’s top marketplace.

Coingecko, a popular cryptocurrency analysis site, recently declared Magic Eden as 2024’s top NFT marketplace. Boasting 36.7% market share, much of Magic Eden’s success this year could be credited to its adoption of the Bitcoin ecosystem, including its integration of Ordinals, BRC-20 tokens, and Runes.

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