Solana Based NFT Marketplace Bags $130 mln Funding

Non fungible tokens’ (NFT) sales might have hit a hard rock since the beginning of this year. However, Solana based NFT marketplace, Magic Eden has bagged $130 million in a Series B funding round.

Magic Eden valued at $1.6 bln

The NFT marketplace has managed to raise the investment to a total valuation of $1.6 billion. The investment round was co-led by Greylock and Electric Capital. It is important to note that, this move has come amid the ongoing collapse of the global crypto market. Avichal Garg, Managing partner of Electric Capital mentioned that he choose to invest in the marketplace as he believes that this will be worth much more ahead.

As per the release, Magic Eden highlights that it plans to utilise the raised funds to expand its primary and secondary marketplaces The marketplace is likely to will the multi chain opportunities. It added that it is aiming to increase the employee strength to 140. However, Magic Eden aims to expand its minted NFTs and jump into gaming and other technologies.

NFT sales down by 34% recorded by May

Earlier, the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea recorded a valuation of $13 billion in a Series C round. Meanwhile, NFTs’ global sales have registered a decrease of about 34% between January and May.

Solana based marketplace was ranked 9th largest NFT marketplace till mid March. However, it has now become the grabbed the second spot on the list. It now just stands behind the OpenSea. According to DappRadar, Magic Eden has recorded a volume of $160.3 million over the past 30 days. On the other hand, OpenSea has registered a volume of $782 million, which is a drop of around 200% in the same time.

However, the Solana (SOL) token prices have also taken a huge hit. SOL prices have dropped by over 64% in the past 60 days. Meanwhile, its price registered a price surge of 7% in the last 24 hours. SOL is trading at an average price of $38.1, at the press time.