What is Magic Eden: The Ultimate Guide to NFTs, Wallets, and the ME Token Airdrop

Magic Eden is an NFT marketplace like Opensea, where people can list, sell, browse, and buy NFTs on Solana and other chains. There’s also the Magic Eden token (ME), launched via airdrop in 2024.

And as we’ll see, Magic Eden now allows cross-chain coin trading via Slingshot and third parties like Jupiter.

Read on to find out all about everything Magic Eden, from the basics, including how it works, all about Magic Eden Wallets (including the Trump wallet controversy), the Magic Eden Coin, and more.

What Is Magic Eden?

Originally, Magic Eden was a marketplace designed for NFTs on Solana alone, much like OpenSea was created for NFTs on Ethereum. Both marketplaces have since expanded to other chains. However, Magic Eden has better support for Solana wallets.

Magic Eden is a marketplace and also an NFT aggregator, meaning it scans every marketplace for NFTs, offering users the best prices and lowest floor prices.

How Does Magic Eden Work?

Whether you’re a buyer, seller, or NFT creator, the first step is to connect your wallet to MagicEden.io.

Magic Eden supports a dizzying 514 different wallets, including their own wallet (more on this later). But for most people, the common choices are Metamask (most popular for EVM-compatible chains such as Ethereum or Polygon) or Phantom for Solana and other chains.

You click login, on the top left-hand corner, and select your wallet of choice.

You are then ready to buy, trade, sell or mint an NFT. (Assuming you already have crypto in your wallet).

Even if you don’t yet have crypto, Magic Eden makes it easy to onramp fiat either via card or PayPal.

Their onramp provider is MoonPay, and, as with almost any fiat onramp, you will need to complete KYC (Know Your Customer) by submitting your ID, to complete the transaction.

Now that you have crypto, you can start browsing NFTs.

You can search by chain, by popularity, by name, or find new collections in their Launchpad section.

While many NFTs are for art, some NFTs possess real-world benefits, such as the Saga DAO alpha club, which promises to send their holders trading tips and coin rewards. Others are loot boxes and in-game items for video games.

New collections typically need to be minted first, as they exist only as a digital image on a web server, until a minting fee is paid. At this point, they become live on the blockchain.

If you know the name of the collection you're looking for, you can search for it in the box. Magic Eden puts a tick next to approved collections to help you not buy the wrong thing. But, as with everything in decentralized crypto, it's always worth double-checking from the project’s socials or website.

How (and why) to get on the WL, aka Whitelist, aka Allowlist?

Whitelisting is a popular method to reduce competition, congestion, and gas wars for initial launches (and to create hype and marketing!), so some new collections may be initially locked for whitelisted wallets only.

While each project differs, whitelisting can be achieved through various methods, such as encouraging people to follow the project’s social media accounts, engaging on Discord and Twitter, or holding a previous NFT from the same creator.

Apart from minting first, there can be various perks to being whitelisted, including receiving rare NFTs, lower prices, or even a free NFT (particularly for those who already hold an NFT from the artist or owner).

For example, holders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) got a free Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT.

Magic Eden Today

Magic Eden now supports 13 different blockchains, with more being added frequently. Here’s the list:

• Solana (SOL)
• Ethereum (ETH)
• Bitcoin (BTC)
• Base (BASE)
• Arbitrum (ARB)
• Polygon (POL)
• ApeChain (APE)
• Sei Network (SEI)
• Binance Smart Chain (BSC)
• Berachain (BERA)
• Abstract (ABS)
• Avalanche (AVAX)
• Monad (MON - currently the testnet)

At the time of writing, Solana accounts for approximately 9% of the total volume traded on Magic Eden and around 10% of the actual sales.

Although sales come from various blockchains, a quick look at the top 10 projects by volume shows that Ethereum is in the lead by a considerable margin, highlighting that the most famous and highly traded collections are mostly hosted on Ethereum.

This aligns with the TVL, (Total Value Locked in DeFi) between Ethereum and Solana, with the former accounting for about 61% of all the money, and Solana accounting for about 10%.

Everything You Need to Know About Magic Eden Wallets

Let’s take a step back and say that you want to know which wallet to connect with.

One thing to keep in mind is that you will want to select a wallet that is compatible with the blockchain you intend to use. Magic Eden makes that easy by allowing you to search by chain. And many wallets are multichain.

So download your wallet of choice (usually a browser extension if you’re on desktop), and an app if you’re on your phone.

If you haven’t already, you’ll need to add your blockchain of choice to your wallet. One way to do this easily (for most EVM blockchains) is by going to Chainlist.org.

Now you are ready! Navigate to Magic Eden, and press the login button (in the top right-hand corner).

You can add an email, but this is optional. For safety, we recommend leaving it blank.

Then simply click on your preferred wallet, press ‘connect’, and you're good to go!

The interface sometimes says that you have a wallet installed when you don’t (we didn’t have all of the ones above installed). So just ignore that.

However, if you want to use a wallet you don’t have, click on its name, and Magic Eden will direct you to the download location.

Why are there so many wallets? And what is the Magic Eden Wallet?

As we’ve mentioned, different wallets support different chains. And some wallets are more secure or easier to use than others, while wallets like MetaMask and Solana have first mover advantage.

Coinbase’s wallet is easy for those using the CEX Coinbase as their way to jump into web3.

However, you’ll notice that the platform recommends using the Magic Eden Wallet. And it even bribes errr.. rewards you, with ME (Magic Eden Tokens) for using it.

And this gives us a clue.

The reason there are so many wallets in crypto is that being a wallet provider is big business.

Wallets like MetaMask allow people to swap crypto within them (instead of going to a decentralized exchange aka DEX). But they take a percentage of the spread as payment for that. According to Blockworks, MetaMask earns $1.5M per week from this.

Additionally, there are other implications, such as MetaMask and others sending your transaction data to protect you from front-running or MEV attacks that steal your money (the flip side is that they could also be selling your transaction data).

And according to the ‘Fat Wallet’ Thesis, being a wallet provider is likely to become all the more monetizable in the future.

Anyway, back to the Magic Eden Wallet.

The Magic Eden wallet is extremely compatible with the dApp, making it easy to use, and to view your NFTs. Their wallet also supports Bitcoin (BTC) Ordinals and Runes NFTs, which some other wallets do not.

And, as we’ve discussed, there are numerous monetizable reasons why Magic Eden would like to have its users in the Magic Eden wallet. Hence, the ‘rewards’ of the ME token to those who use their wallet.

And that leads us nicely to another key feature of Magic Eden, its ME token and the airdrops.

What Is the Magic Eden Coin ($ME) and What Is It Used For?

The ME coin was launched to create revenue for Magic Eden, but also to reward its users. The ME token can be used for voting and governance, trading fee discounts, access to exclusive collections and perks, staking for $ME rewards, and more.

Here are some stats and facts about $ME:

• Announcement: The ME token was announced in August 2024.
• Launch Date: The token launched on Tuesday, December 10, 2024.
• Total Supply: The total supply is 1 billion ME tokens.
• Airdrop Allocation: 12.5% of the total supply (125 million ME) was allocated for the airdrop.

Season 1 of the airdrop finished on March 31, 2025, with a total of 10 million ME tokens (worth $8M) distributed to eligible participants. Season 1 was for people that both traded AND participated in quests

Season 2 eligibility began in April 2025, and as of publication, is still open to new users. Season 2 is all about staking and trading, with volume being important. The second airdrop is expected to happen in August.

And the catch? You have to have a Magic Eden Wallet to claim your tokens.

As with all tokens that feature a massive airdrop, the price of the token dropped quickly after the launch. This is due to the selling pressure being much higher than the utility of the coin.

The ME price went from highs of $12 per token, to around $4, where it kept on falling, and has hovered around the $1 mark for most of 2025. Users also complained that the website's claim portal was hard to use.

Still, ‘free money’ is ‘free money’ right? Well, minus a bit of time and effort.

How to Qualify for Season 2 Airdrop of $ME

According to Magic Eden’s X account:

And more specifically

So, staking $ME and trading NFT and crypto on Magic Eden is the way to go for the Season 2 airdrop.

However, staking $ME could be risky, if you didn’t get it for free in the first airdrop. Because the price of $ME is likely to fall again after the second airdrop.The Magic Eden team has also said, “We’ll … clearly show what actions (like swaps, Ordinals, Solana/ETH NFTs) are boosted for more rewards in the UI when S2 goes live.”

Eligible trades notify you and direct you to a page where you can see how you're stacking up against others on the leaderboard.

The Magic Eden $TRUMP Wallet Controversy

In June 2025, Magic Eden got themselves into hot water with the Trump family after they announced a partnership with the team behind the $TRUMP memecoin to launch a Trump wallet.

It was marketed as "the first and only crypto wallet for true Trump fans" and featured a waitlist with a $1 million reward pool in $TRUMP tokens to encourage sign-ups. The wallet was built using technology from Slingshot Finance, which, as you may recall, Magic Eden acquired.

Within hours, Donald Trump Jr. disavowed any connection between the Trump family and Magic Eden. Eric Trump threatened Magic Eden, posting on X, “I would be extremely careful using our name in a project that has not been approved and is unknown to anyone in our organization”.

Cease and desist letters were sent, and subsequently, everything about the Trump wallet was deleted or taken down.

How did this happen?

It seems that the $TRUMP token, which was backed by the Fight Fight Fight LLC (Led by Trump associate Bill Zanker), is only loosely connected to the Trump Foundation. And yet the confusion is clear, as the $TRUMP token was endorsed by the family, with a dinner awarded to the largest holder. And the Trump family has profited considerably from the token.

Ultimately, there was a clash between the $TRUMP memecoin and the Trump family brand. Or to put it another way, the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing.

Since the Trump family is launching their own wallet through their separate, family-affiliated DeFi company, World Liberty Financial (WLFI), they didn’t want any competition.

Which NFT Marketplace is the most successful?

As OpenSea has the first mover advantage, they remain the top NFT platform of all time, and also (at the time of writing) in terms of volume in the last 30 days, with an amazing $39 billion over the lifetime of the Dapp.

Second comes Blur, then Magic Eden. ME is a big player, but as we can see from Dappradar, it has had $4.5B of trading volume, impressive but less than OpenSea and Blur.

However, over the last 30 days, the CryptoPunks marketplace has overtaken Magic Eden, as the OG collection resurfaces with Ethereum’s price rise.

It’s also possible that users are engaging in ‘wash trading’, eg, buying and selling to themselves, to increase transaction volumes, to boost their ME coin airdrop. This happened on Blur when it launched on the Blast blockchain.

What Features Does Magic Eden Have?

We’ve already discussed that you can buy, sell, and mint NFTs on Magic Eden.

So, what other benefits does Magic Eden have?

Magic Eden has LOW fees

One of Magic Eden’s claims to fame is its low fees, with 0% listing fees and 2% transaction fees. In comparison, Opensea charges 0.5% to sellers and 10% to NFT primary drops. Ouch.

On the other hand, Blur charges 0% fees, which begs the question, how do they make money? The docs don’t say, but it may be through royalties, or their BLEND (Blur Lend) protocol.

What is the Magic Eden Launchpad?

The Launchpad is designed to make creating new collections easy. Creators submit an application, and if approved, can launch collections without needing to code. Royalty fees, whitelists, and other features are easy to include.

Many collections on the launchpad have real-world utility in apps or metaverses.

How to buy NFTs on Bitcoin

Although Bitcoin doesn’t officially support smart contracts, in January 2023, it became possible to inscribe NFTs to individual sats (the smallest denominator of Bitcoin) via the BRC-20 standard created by the Ordinals protocol.

Then another protocol called Bitcoin Runes came along, which uses a different method to make it easier and more efficient to launch NFTs on Bitcoin.

While many of the NFT marketplaces don't provide support for these protocols, Magic Eden does.

Crypto Swaps and Trading on Magic Eden

While NFTs are seeing a resurgence, there’s no denying that the popularity of the 2021 NFT boom has never returned, even in subsequent bull runs.

That made it an obvious choice for Magic Eden to begin to position itself as a way to swap crypto. The protocol offers swaps through its homepage, but there is a downside. Third parties complete the swaps, and according to the docs, there could be rare cases in which crypto is held for verification by the third parties.

These third parties include Jupiter, Lif, and Exodus.

What’s next for Magic Eden Crypto Swaps?

Magic Eden no doubt wants to get a bigger share of the pie when it comes to crypto trading, and acquired Slingshot with this in mind. While they initially said they would likely not mingle the two products, there is a direct link to the Slingshot app from the homepage. It’s likely they will continue to integrate the two services.

Want to know a better way to trade crypto on Solana? Check out our DEX page and learn all about the aggregation swap jup.ag