The issuance of tokens is imminent. How to value Magic Eden?

Author: Asher, Odaily Planet Daily

The "big pork knuckle rice" of the "hair pulling party" is about to be served. This morning, the Magic Eden Foundation announced the ME token economics, of which 12.5% of the total supply will be used for token airdrops, and will be fully unlocked at TGE. Meanwhile, Magic Eden co-founder and CEO Jack Lu posted on X, stating that the ME token will be launched in a few weeks, and that community-first features will be introduced in the future to reward loyal users, who can earn ME tokens through daily use of Magic Eden products.

Affected by the announcement of ME token economics, Whales Market pre-market data shows that ME (Magic Eden) is currently reported at 2.5 USDT, with a 24H increase of 150% and a 24H trading volume exceeding 200,000 USD. Some large score boosters in the Magic Eden community are quite satisfied with the current pre-market price performance, even believing that ME has a chance to surge to 3 to 4 USD upon opening.

ME Pre-market Price Situation

However, the floor price of Magic Tickets briefly rose to 0.24 SOL this morning before quickly retreating, and is currently back to the level before the announcement of ME token economics, reported at 0.179 SOL.

Magic Tickets Floor Price K-Line Chart

Next, Odaily Planet Daily will keep you updated on the Magic Eden project, ME token economics model, and preparations before the official token claim.

Project Introduction

Image Source: Official Twitter

Magic Eden is a multi-asset on-chain trading platform that unifies market and user experience through the ME token and Magic Eden wallet, as well as a more robust business model.

Magic Eden co-founder Zedd stated in a blog, "Magic Eden's core focus is on actual user engagement rather than just trading volume, as trading volume can easily be influenced by incentives. We are more focused on analyzing user activity and actual revenue. Blur has performed excellently in incentivizing liquidity, which we believe is a clever strategy. However, we have always believed that the platform we pursue should not solely rely on liquidity incentives. We prefer to focus on user activity and revenue, as these metrics better reflect the platform's health. Additionally, we recognize that over-reliance on trading volume as a metric can be risky."

According to official data, Magic Eden's cross-chain NFT and token trading volume has reached 600 million USD, and the newly launched mobile product Magic Eden Wallet has 300,000 monthly active addresses. Moreover, Magic Eden is the number one DEX in the Bitcoin ecosystem, with rune and inscription trading volume accounting for over 80%; on the other hand, it is also the largest NFT platform in terms of revenue and user share in the NFT ecosystem (with a revenue share of 60% and a user share of 29%).

Magic Eden Related Data

Token Economic Model

According to official information, Magic Eden's native token ME has a total supply of 1 billion tokens, with token distribution set to be released over 4 years, of which more than half will be allocated to the community. The specific distribution is as follows:

• Initial token airdrop: 12.5 million tokens, accounting for 12.5% of the total supply, will reward users from the Bitcoin, Solana, and EVM ecosystems, fully unlocked at TGE, and distributed to users through Magic Eden's mobile dApp. Any unclaimed amount will be returned to ME participants as part of community distribution for future rewards;
• Community and ecosystem: 37.7 million tokens, accounting for 37.7% of the total supply, with 22.5% of the total supply allocated to reward active users of the ME protocol, primarily through reward programs; the remaining 15.2% will be used for ecosystem development, including passionate advocates and creators who wish to support the protocol;
• Contributors: 26.2 million tokens, accounting for 26.2% of the total supply, will be allocated to project contractors, consultants, and company employees, with over 60% of these tokens locked for at least 18 months post-TGE, and then released linearly;
• Strategic participants: 23.6 million tokens, accounting for 23.6% of the total supply, will be allocated to all strategic participants who provided significant guidance during the formulation of the ME Foundation protocol, with this portion locked for at least 12 months post-TGE, and then released linearly.

ME Token Economics

According to the token release chart, ME will be fully distributed over 4 years, at which point all ME tokens will be fully circulating, with most allocated to the community.

ME Token Release Chart

At the same time, to ensure that the community and protocol are not affected by security issues, Magic Eden will appoint a security committee consisting of 5 members to oversee the multi-signature wallet, which can execute both emergency actions and delayed non-emergency actions.

Speculation on the Exchange Rate Between Diamonds and Tokens

Although 12.5% of the total supply of the ME token is allocated for this airdrop, the "hair pulling party" is more concerned about the exchange rate between the diamonds they have accumulated and the tokens. The total supply of diamonds is 17 billion, and if calculated based on full circulation, the exchange rate would be 136:1.

According to feedback from administrators in the official Discord channel, the total number of diamonds accumulated by users across the network is still somewhat short of the target of 17 billion. Therefore, many users speculate that the exchange rate between diamonds and tokens may be closer to 100:1. This means that an account with 10,000 diamond points could exchange for about 100 ME tokens. Based on an over-the-counter trading price of 2.5 USD, the value of this airdrop would be approximately 250 USD.

Response from the channel administrator regarding the total amount of diamonds in the official Discord

Preparations Before Token Claim

With the announcement of the Magic Eden token economic model, the date for the token airdrop is also approaching. To ensure that the "hair pulling party" can successfully claim the tokens as soon as possible, Odaily Planet Daily has compiled the following points of attention based on official information:

• Before TGE, users can check which wallets are eligible through the eligibility checker, and users can also connect their wallets at this time, similar to the TestME application process;
• On the day of TGE and thereafter, there will be a claiming period during which eligible users can claim and stake ME tokens.

Therefore, similar to the test token claiming process, users will need to download and install the official Magic Eden wallet on their mobile devices for the formal token claim.

It is worth mentioning that the previous TestME claiming process conducted by Magic Eden indicated that there was no monetary value, and participating users could ensure their wallets were correctly linked and prepare for receiving the official ME token claim, with over 250,000 wallets claiming in the first instance.

Additionally, 37.7% of the share in the ME token economic model is allocated to the community, and this portion of tokens is likely to be used for subsequent Magic Eden point accumulation activities or airdrop rewards. Therefore, even if users miss this airdrop, there will still be opportunities to prepare for the second season of Magic Eden's token airdrop activities. Let us also look forward to the opening performance of ME, the token of the currently most active trading platform in the NFT market, Magic Eden.

Summary

Currently, Magic Eden is the largest NFT platform in terms of revenue and user share, surpassing Blur and OpenSea (which will launch v2 in December). Although the release of the token economic model and the planned token launch in the coming weeks, along with the potential second season of point accumulation "token grabbing" activities, will attract considerable user attention in a short time, it is challenging to inject sustained attention and liquidity into the NFT sector in the current environment of "rushing into meme coins."

If Magic Eden aims to reignite the NFT market through token issuance and ongoing token reward activities, it is undoubtedly a challenging goal. Currently, market interest in NFTs has significantly declined, and even within the community, the term NFT has become more of a subject of ridicule, with user interest nearly cooling off. As a "pioneer in NFT market token issuance," the Blur system once sparked discussions about whether excessive financialization signals the elegy of NFTs, and whether not embracing financialization is also a slow death. Perhaps whether the NFT industry can rise again is not only a question for NFT trading platforms to ponder.