Magic Eden launches platform for Bitcoin Runes

Quick Take

  • The NFT marketplace Magic Eden launched a new platform for Bitcoin Runes. 
  • Magic Eden’s Runes Platform, in beta, lets users swap for BTC and buy Runes and Ordinals with their Magic Eden wallet.

The NFT marketplace Magic Eden launched a new platform for Bitcoin BTC +4.66% Runes on Monday. 

Magic Eden's Runes Platform, in beta, lets users swap for BTC and buy Runes and Ordinals with their Magic Eden wallet. The platform will also have a Swaps View, allowing users to set a certain BTC amount they want to spend when buying Runes, according to a release from Magic Eden. 

Though Magic Eden initially slated to release the product on April 23, the Magic Eden Runes Platform was completed ahead of schedule, a company spokesperson told The Block. 

"As early supporters and first to build an Ordinals marketplace, it was important for us that we build the best Runes experience possible in this important evolutionary step for Bitcoin," said Magic Eden co-founder and COO Zedd Yin in a statement. "We’re proud to be a growth driver in the industry and further cement why Magic Eden is the one-stop-shop for all things Bitcoin."

Bitcoin push 

Bitcoin Ordinals are like NFTs for the Bitcoin network, in which metadata like images or text are minted onto the smallest units of BTC called satoshis. Bitcoin Runes are an evolution of Ordinals and allow for a more effective way to create fungible tokens on the network.

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"Runes could offer a more secure and reliable platform for token creation and transactions. By using the UTXO for on-chain data storage, it inherits the security model of Bitcoin for stronger safety features and a reduced risk of security holes, aka vulnerabilities," Magic Eden wrote in a post. UXTO stands for "Unspent Transaction Output," which is when a surplus output of one Bitcoin transaction can be used as the input for a new one. 

Magic Eden has supported Bitcoin Ordinals through a Bitcoin NFT marketplace since March 2023, CoinDesk reports. The Magic Eden wallet supports Ethereum and Polygon in addition to Bitcoin and Solana. 

Magic Eden brought in $23.42 million in daily volume of Bitcoin Ordinals on NFT marketplaces, according to The Block's Data Dashboard


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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