Magic Eden launches a Bitcoin NFT marketplace, supporting Hiro and Xverse wallets to let users trade Ordinal NFTs, expanding on SOL, ETH, and MATIC marketplaces
The popular NFT marketplace is integrating support for Bitcoin wallets Hiro and Xverse to help traders list, purchase and sell Ordinal NFTs.
Context & Ripple Effects
Magic Eden has spent the past year converting its Solana roots into a multichain franchise: after the $130M Series B at a $1.6B valuation funded expansion beyond Solana, it added card-based buying through MoonPay and later an Ethereum marketplace built with Yuga Labs that is contractually obligated to pay creator royalties (the Yuga Labs Ethereum platform). The Bitcoin launch is the next leg of that same playbook — bringing Ordinals, Bitcoin-native inscriptions, into a marketplace whose infrastructure was built for other chains.
What makes this notable is the wallet strategy rather than the chain itself: by integrating Hiro and Xverse directly, Magic Eden is plugging into the existing Bitcoin user base instead of waiting for one to migrate to it.
First-order effects
- Hiro and Xverse users gain a listing and sales venue for their Ordinals without leaving their existing wallets, giving Magic Eden immediate access to Bitcoin-native collectors.
- Ordinal traders get a second marketplace option backed by a team that has already run SOL, ETH, and MATIC order books, rather than a Bitcoin-only upstart.
Second-order effects
- The multichain model compounds: each new chain widens the funnel for Magic Eden's later moves, including the mobile wallet and ecosystem token announced in 2024 and the fiat on-ramp from the MoonPay partnership.
- Bitcoin-native marketplaces and wallet providers now compete against a well-funded incumbent that can bundle cross-chain liquidity, pushing them to differentiate on Bitcoin-specific features or cede volume.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, NFT marketplaces consolidate into a handful of cross-chain platforms where the chain becomes interchangeable plumbing and competition shifts to wallets, payments, and liquidity — with creator-royalty policy as a differentiator, as the contractually obligated Yuga Labs arrangement already signals.
The trend: NFT marketplaces are consolidating into chain-agnostic platforms that expand by acquiring each new chain's native wallets and users, from Solana to Ethereum to Bitcoin Ordinals.