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Magic Eden, one of the largest cross-chain NFT platforms, launched<\/a> a Bitcoin marketplace for digital artifacts<\/a>, the company shared on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are already a multichain platform and believe that adding Bitcoin will connect us to a deep community of people and a rapidly growing collectibles market thanks to Ordinals,\u201d Zhuoxun Yin, COO and co-founder of Magic Eden, said to TechCrunch. \u201cAdding a Bitcoin marketplace allows us to continue our multichain vision.\u201d<\/p>\n Ordinals, an NFT-like project on Bitcoin\u2019s blockchain, has grown significantly since the first one was inscribed in December. By mid-February, over 90,000 Ordinals were inscribed<\/a> \u2014 which is jargon for created (or minted) \u2014 on the Bitcoin blockchain. About a month later, there are more than 400,000 inscriptions on the Bitcoin blockchain, up 344% during that time frame, Magic Eden shared.<\/p>\n Prior to the announcement, Magic Eden supported NFT trading<\/a> on Solana and Polygon and provided aggregated listings for Ethereum-based NFTs. The platform is supported by major firms like Paradigm, Sequoia, Coinbase Ventures, Solana Ventures and others, and has more than 22 million unique monthly visitors and over 100,000 wallets connecting to its network daily, its website stated<\/a>.<\/p>\n Magic Eden launching a Bitcoin marketplace could be a significant step forward because there are limited tools and products for the blockchain\u2019s trading market, which has made the space inaccessible and unsafe for nonprofessional users. Going forward, this could expand its reach to a bigger audience.<\/p>\n The launch will also integrate two noncustodial crypto wallets, Hiro and Xverse, so users can process transactions.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Bitcoin NFT ecosystem is very new and a lot of the tooling that exists today is not optimal and lacks robust security measures,\u201d Yin said. \u201cWe want to come in with a serious focus on security and transparency while leveraging our brand so that people can feel safe when trading their Ordinals, thus opening up the ecosystem to flourish even more.\u201d<\/p>\n As the overall NFT market continues to grow, the subsector is still discovering its product-market fit, Yin thinks. \u201cThe growth of Bitcoin NFTs indicates that there\u2019s a market for people who want to own true digital artifacts or collectibles.\u201d<\/p>\n Magic Eden has \u201calways taken a long-term view\u201d that NFTs will be the center of culture over many years, Yin said.<\/p>\n While NFTs have gained popularity within the crypto industry, the mainstream world is still slow to adopt it, even though major brands and companies like Starbucks, Adidas and Nike have launched initiatives in the past year to implement NFT-like products and services.<\/p>\n For Magic Eden\u2019s initial beta launch of its Bitcoin Marketplace, it selected 13 collections to partner with, including Taproot Wizards, Inscribed Pepes and Bitcoin Bandits, to name a few. Those collections were selected because they were some of the earliest to be inscribed and have the \u201cstrongest communities,\u201d Yin said. \u201cWe see value in partnering with early adopters as many of them have been pioneers for Ordinal theory as well as contributors to Bitcoin\u2019s culture for many years.\u201d<\/p>\n In the near future, all Bitcoin inscriptions will be available for trading on Magic Eden, Yin noted. In the long term, Magic Eden plans to continue building out new use cases on new chains.<\/p>\n \u201cDespite where the market is at, we are continuing to build in the bear and we\u2019re showing people that we are doubling down on our commitment to the long-term potential for NFTs,\u201d Yin added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n