In keeping with an official put up it shared through its X web page, Magic Eden, a star from the NFT increase period, will now allocate 15% of all platform income to buybacks and staking rewards as of subsequent month to redistribute worth within the $ME token ecosystem.
The brand new program is a by-product of its earlier buyback program, which began in late 2025 and initially targeted 15-30% of price income generated from the secondary market on the $ME token and NFT repurchases.
Magic Eden unveils buybacks and USDC staking rewards
This new mannequin expands on that. It’s scheduled to take impact from February 1 and can cowl income from all the platform, together with NFTs, packs, predictions, and different options.
“The objective is straightforward. When Magic Eden wins, the ecosystem wins too,” the announcement shared on X learn. It additionally revealed the income will probably be break up evenly, with 50% going to $ME buybacks whereas the opposite 50% will probably be distributed as USDC rewards to $ME stakers, based mostly on staking energy.
The put up claims that the present marketplace-only $ME buybacks are being changed by this ecosystem-wide system, and staking energy is set by how a lot customers stake and the way lengthy they stake it.
The USDC rewards will reportedly be claimable month-to-month, with the primary declare to be made accessible in March for February exercise. These rewards will stay accessible for 90 days after that and have to be claimed inside that timeframe.
The put up didn’t elaborate on what is going to occur to unclaimed rewards after that point lapses.
The hybrid mannequin has caught the curiosity of neighborhood members because it rewards long-term holders with actual USDC yield, which may encourage contemporary influx and likewise scale back promote stress on the token itself, all whereas offering purchase help.
Some analysts estimate it may additionally ship alluring APYs for stakers based mostly on present income and staking ranges. Nonetheless, it needs to be famous that the precise yield will probably be tied on to platform efficiency.
Magic Eden expanded past NFT buying and selling since volumes declined
Magic Eden burst onto the NFT scene in 2021 and rapidly dominated the sector, turning into distinguished by providing low charges and creator-friendly instruments. Over time, it has facilitated over $15 billion in NFT buying and selling quantity.
Nonetheless, after NFT buying and selling volumes began to say no, the group needed to decide: turn out to be obscure similar to NFTs or pivot to remain related. It selected to pivot, rapidly evolving over time into greater than only a easy NFT market to construct a various set of income streams, which is why, in 2026, though NFTs not command as a lot consideration, it’s nonetheless kicking.
That significant pivot began heating up between 2024 and 2025. It began by launching its personal crypto pockets, which permits customers to retailer and handle not solely NFTs but additionally fungible cryptocurrency.
“We definitely should not retrenching our funding into NFTs; we’re ramping it up much more,” Chief Govt Jack Lu stated. “Nonetheless, crypto does have a number of ups and downs, and for us to diversify into extra classes and use circumstances, that makes us extra resilient and stronger.”
That improvement occurred in January 2024 and marked its shift towards a platform that supported all chains and all property. By April 2025, it introduced the acquisition of Slingshot, a mobile-first on-chain crypto buying and selling app, and it was described because the platform’s greatest transfer past NFTs, because it facilitated token buying and selling throughout hundreds of thousands of tokens and a number of chains.
Magic Eden as a hub for crypto leisure
The Slingshot buy positioned the ME platform as a rival of CEXs and helped it diversify income into token buying and selling. By the center of 2025 and in direction of the tip of the yr, it had launched extra gamified leisure options that helped it evolve right into a crypto leisure platform.
In direction of the tip of 2025, it continued its rebranding as a hub for on-chain leisure, providing extra gaming options and prediction markets, developments that stored encouraging exercise on the platform whereas producing income within the course of.
