Magic Eden acquires crypto trading app Slingshot to move beyond NFTs

Solana non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden has acquired crypto trading app Slingshot as part of a strategy to expand beyond NFTs as other marketplaces fold amid a prolonged market downturn.

The move expands Magic Eden's support to more than 8 million tokens across almost every major blockchain, the firm said in an April 9 X post.

“No bridges. No CEXs. This is another major step towards our vision of providing the best platform to trade all assets, on all chains,” Magic Eden said.

Source: Jack Lu

Slingshot has amassed nearly 1 million users to date, allowing users to access any token on 10 of the largest blockchains with a universal USDC balance.

Slingshot is one of several crypto platforms aiming to deliver full-chain abstraction — eliminating the need for users to choose the right wallet, ensure they have enough gas fees, find a trusted bridge and move funds — only then to buy the token they’re after.

Magic Eden CEO Jack Lu hopes the integration will help shift more of the 500 million users still relying on centralized exchanges toward more crypto-native, onchain platforms.

NFT marketplaces shutter as market lulls

Lu said that Magic Eden and Slingshot and Magic Eden will continue to operate independently but noted there will be “increasing connectivity” between the platforms over time.

Lu also noted that Magic Eden made $75 million from its NFT marketplace in 2024 and hopes the Slingshot acquisition will help drive those numbers up even higher.

Magic Eden’s expansion comes as several NFT marketplaces have shuttered in recent months.

DraftKings, GameStop and the crypto exchange Bybit all closed their NFT marketplaces, with Bybit citing falling NFT trading volumes in its April 8 announcement.

X2Y2 also recently announced that its NFT marketplace would shut down on April 30 as the firm looks to pivot into artificial intelligence.

NFT marketplaces have seen $1.6 billion worth of NFT sales across 14 million transactions so far in 2025, CryptoSlam data shows.

However, monthly sales volume has fallen every single month in 2025, and the $1.6 billion is nowhere near on track to match the $8.9 billion total from 2024, let alone the record $23.7 billion seen in 2022.