Magic Eden Launches Ethereum Marketplace in Alliance with Yuga Labs

The much-awaited Ethereum NFT marketplace from Magic Eden and Yuga Labs went live on Tuesday, February 27th, sparking discussion of a revival of creator royalties in the Web3 space. The marketplace, which features collector pages, a loyalty program via Diamond drops, and other perks, is the first of its kind on Ethereum that mandates support for royalties on the smart contract level.

It is a sharp change from other leading marketplaces that have largely done away with creator royalties. Greg Solano, the new CEO of Yuga Labs and co-creator of Bored Ape Yacht Club, said in a statement that royalties are a “lifeline” that keep creators building Web3 activations that are “fun, weird, and innovative.” In his view, Magic Eden is the first major marketplace to launch a platform that “we can all be proud of.” Magic Eden bills itself as the leading cross-chain NFT platform, hosting marketplaces for Solana, Polygon, Bitcoin, and Ethereum digital assets.

This latest move, along with some retrospective Diamond airdrops, may put it in a position to take market share from other top marketplaces like OpenSea. Jack Lu, Magic Eden CEO and co-founder, noted all the partnerships that went into building this marketplace, including Yuga Labs, Limit Break, and its Creator’s Alliance. According to him, the future of Web3 includes creator royalties and incentivizing growth within the industry.

To celebrate the launch of the new marketplace, Magic Eden, Yuga Labs, and the Creator’s Alliance have collaborated on a special NFT drop: a commemorative art piece from Clon of Cool Cats. There will be 1,000 total, with 500 randomly dropped to users who transacted on the marketplace in the first month and another 500 to those who pay the most in royalties in the same time frame. In an announcement on Monday, Yuga Labs shared that it was sunsetting the availability of its collections on marketplaces that don’t support creator royalties.