Stephanie Douse 
Magic Eden a Solana NFT marketplace announced today that it has raised $27 million in the Series A round, which was led by Paradigm and had contributions from other VC firms. The fund according to the marketplace will be used to further its goals.
Sequoia, Solana Ventures, Greylock, Kindred, Electric, and Variant were among the investors in the Series A round, which was led by Paradigm.
Magic Eden intends to use the cash to expand its workforce, expand its gaming sector, seek new collaborations, and develop a full-service mobile app for buying and selling NFTs.
In a statement, co-founder and CEO Jack Lu said, “Magic Eden will be much more than a location for consumers to acquire NFTs.”
“Our goal is to distinguish clearly between Web2 and Web3, allowing creators, collectors, and supporters to interact with one another and control the direction of their online activities.”
About Magic Eden
Magic Eden controls a sizable portion of the Solana NFT market. Magic Eden has generated around $461 million in NFT trading volume over the past 30 days, according to data from analytics firm DappRadar, compared to barely $12 million for the next-highest Solana marketplace, Solanart.
Magic Eden and its investors are wagering that as more users migrate to a platform with reduced fees and a lower average NFT sale price, the platform’s user base will grow.
Magic Eden has already generated more monthly transactions than OpenSea, with 4.64 million in the last 30 days versus 2.28 million.
In any case, according to DappRadar, the Ethereum-based marketplace OpenSea has a large overall lead in the NFT industry, with $2.19 billion in trade volume in the last 30 days.
OpenSea, on the other hand, may be about to take on Magic Eden head-on. Solana’s integration on OpenSea was leaked as screenshots from famous blogger and hacker Jane Manchun-Wong in January, but it has yet to be formally disclosed or integrated into the platform.
An NFT is a deed of ownership for a one-of-a-kind digital property, such as artwork, collectibles, or video game items. In 2021, the overall market hit $25 million in total trading volume, with Ethereum accounting for the great majority of the amount.
Magic Eden announced the establishment of a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) dubbed MagicDAO in February. The DAO will provide users who have a Magic Ticket NFT—which will be airdropped for free to top users—a say in the marketplace’s future.