The marketplace that became the front door of Solana NFTs within months of launching in September 2021, and the one that survived the chain's 2022 collapse by spreading to other chains and, in 2023, to Bitcoin Ordinals. A launchpad, a marketplace and a wallet by 2024, and the closest thing to a Solana institution that the NFT era produced.
The site's front page in autumn 2021: a launchpad countdown, a rotating list of animal collections, and a footer that said 'Solana' in a way that was, by 2023, one option in a drop-down.
The record notes that Magic Eden's advantage was never the product; it was being where the mints were. On Solana every mint went through it, and everything else followed.
I bought monkeys, bears, cats and foxes on it in a single year and it never once made me feel that was strange. That is either good design or complicity. The record leaves the choice to the reader.
It is dead. Say something true about it.
