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Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Summary:

Summary:

- Magic Eden, the Solana ecological NFT market, announced the launch of the Web3 game investment department.

- Magic Ventures aims to make strategic investments through Magic Eden's infrastructure and bring developers to Web3.Magic Eden, the largest NFT marketplace in the Solana ecosystem, just launched in late JuneAnnounced the completion of a $130 million Series B round of financing

, and plans to expand beyond the Solana ecosystem.

The Series B round values ​​Magic Eden, which was founded last September, at $1.6 billion. That makes it the latest crypto "unicorn" -- one with a valuation of $1 billion or more. The round was co-led by Electric Capital and Greylock, with participation from new investor Lightspeed Venture Partners and existing investors Paradigm and Sequoia Capital.

Now we know how the company spent the money: It launched a gaming-focused investment arm.

Yesterday, Magic Eden announced the launch of Magic Ventures, a venture capital arm exclusively focused on Web3 games. To achieve this goal, the company has hired Tony Zhao, formerly of Chinese gaming giant Tencent, as its new head of gaming investments.

Zhao told Decrypt that Magic Ventures’ investment will be “purely strategic in nature” and provide support for NFT-driven video game developers, rather than investing for returns.

“We don’t think about returns—never, never will,” Zhao said. “It’s just to solidify our partnership, and we really want to be the partner of choice for these developers.”

When Magic Ventures signs game developers, they enter the Magic Eden ecosystem, which will provide a Launchpad for primary sales of new NFTs, as well as a secondary market to support ongoing sales. Magic Eden currently holds 90% or more of Solana's entire NFT market share. The idea, Zhao said, is to help game developers more easily enter the Web3 ecosystem.

"Developers can focus on the one thing they know how to do, which is making great games," he explained. "We're going to help them take care of all the Web3 elements and help them integrate into the ecosystem."

Magic Ventures has made some investments and more are in the works, Zhao said, but would not say which projects or startups it has invested in.

“We’re not here to fund the entire (game) development process,” he said. “The added value we provide is not capital, but all these infrastructure solutions, and the NFT experience that no one else in the market can offer.”

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Where Game Developers and Web3 Collide

In addition to launching its venture arm, Magic Eden's Eden Games division announced it has reached an agreement with the developers of several Solana games, including Aurory, Mini Royale: Nations and Genopets, to support each game's in-game NFT marketplace. Once the games are released, players will be able to buy and sell NFTs within each game without having to travel to external marketplaces.

It aims to provide a seamless process for players, especially for those who do not know how to deal with crypto wallets and self-custody assets. That infrastructure is provided to developers so they don't have to build integrations from scratch, Zhao said.

In gaming, NFTs can represent unique weapon designs, character avatars, and customizable virtual plots.

The NFT marketplace plans to support other blockchain platforms besides Solana in the future, although no specific blockchains have been announced yet.

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Magic Eden takes on Fractal

Magic Eden's increasing focus on Web3 gaming also puts it in direct competition with Fractal. Fractal is also a gaming-focused marketplace for Solana NFTs, co-founded by Justin Kan, who is also the co-founder of video game streaming platform Twitch.

Fractal only focuses on interactive game assets, while Magic Eden also supports profile pictures and other types of NFT assets.

Zhao said that both Magic Eden and Fractal are focused on developing the Web3 gaming field, but he believes that Magic Eden offers a more comprehensive solution suite to launch and support Solana-based games, and said the results achieved by Magic Eden support his confidence.