Neither the author, Tim Fries, nor this website, The Tokenist, provide financial advice. Please consult our website policies before making any financial decisions.
This Wednesday, Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden announced that its iOS and Android apps have stopped working. It’s taking a “hiatus” on its smartphone apps for at least a few months, according to the platform.
Magic Eden smartphone apps will not work for at least a few months
This Wednesday, the NFT marketplace Magic Eden announced via Twitter that its smartphone apps are no longer functional. According to the marketplace, the apps remain unusable for at least several months. However, Magic Eden also stated that its platform would remain accessible via mobile, either through a web browser or Phantom Wallet’s app.
While the company didn’t give a specific reason for dropping its smartphone offering, it said it would focus on improving its other areas. Magic Eden specifically mentioned improvements in its user interface as well as work on future Magic Eden Rewards and Cross-Chain as areas of focus for the coming months.
Also on Wednesday, Magic Eden introduced royalties for item-level listings. Full creator royalties are now factored into the prices of “enforced collections” and users can choose to pay full, partial, or no royalties for “unenforced collections”. After initially rejecting the idea, Magic Eden introduced royalty enforcement tools in early December.
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Despite setbacks in 2022, NFTs are off to a strong start into 2023
While the entire cryptocurrency sector has had a tough 2022 due to a series of disasters, scandals and the general impact of record-breaking inflation, NFTs have arguably been hit particularly hard. Not only has interest in non-fungible tokens hit zero over the summer, but the industry has also been the target of increased regulatory pressure with the announcement of Yuga Labs’ SEC investigation functionality on smartphones.
Last December, Coinbase’s wallet on iOS suffered a loss of functionality when Apple blocked one of its updates. At the time, the cryptocurrency exchange revealed that the tech giant stripped users of the ability to send and receive non-fungible tokens, stating that this was due to Apple’s new policies aimed at protecting its profits.
However, the start of 2023 saw a significant shift for both non-fungible tokens and the broader cryptocurrency industry, which staged a significant rally in January. The increased interest in NFTs has been fueled in part by the rising popularity of aggregators and the hype surrounding the recent release of Blur’s long-awaited BLUR token.
The year also saw the launch of Ordinals – NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. While these non-fungible tokens sparked a somewhat divisive discussion within the community, they received a significant boost earlier this week when Yuga Labs, creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club, unveiled their first-ever Bitcoin NFT collection.
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Why is Magic Eden temporarily discontinuing its smartphone apps? Tell us what you think in the comments below.
About the author
Tim Fries is co-founder of The Tokenist. He has a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering from the University of Michigan and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Tim was a senior associate on the investment team of RW Baird’s US private equity practice and is also a co-founder of Protective Technologies Capital, an investment firm specializing in sensing, protection and control solutions.
