Paradigm, Sequoia, and Lightspeed backed a $1.6B NFT marketplace.
It's now a crypto casino.
Magic Eden raised $130M in June 2022 to go multi chain. Bitcoin marketplace. EVM marketplace. Multi chain wallet. They built it all.
December 2024: they launch the solana:MEFNBXixkEbait3xn9bkm8WsJzXtVsaJEn4c8Sam21u token. Six promises attached.
1. Governance through ME DAO
2. Revenue sharing from platform fees
3. Multi chain utility
4. Staking rewards
5. NFT buyback program
6. Trading incentives
Token hits its peak. People buy in.
January 2026: CEO Jack Lu discloses annual revenue. $24 million. For a company valued at $1.6 billion. Before Magic Eden, Lu worked at FTX.
He announces 15% of revenue goes to solana:MEFNBXixkEbait3xn9bkm8WsJzXtVsaJEn4c8Sam21u stakers.
I did the math.
15% of $24M = $3.6M per year. Split across 600 million tokens. That's $0.006 per token per year. If you held $1,000 worth of solana:MEFNBXixkEbait3xn9bkm8WsJzXtVsaJEn4c8Sam21u, your annual revenue share was about six dollars.
February 2026: Lu says "80% of our costs are tied to products generating only 20% of our revenue."
Then shuts it all down.
- Bitcoin marketplace: closed March 9.
- EVM marketplace: closed March 9.
- Multi chain wallet: removed from app stores April 1.
- NFT buyback: discontinued.
- DAO governance: the lawsuit calls it "equally hollow."
Six promises. Six broken.
The pivot: Dicey. A crypto casino and sportsbook. $75 million committed. The company that raised $130M to build an NFT marketplace is now running a gambling platform.
solana:MEFNBXixkEbait3xn9bkm8WsJzXtVsaJEn4c8Sam21u token: down 99%. Market cap: ~$30 million.
Class action filed June 16. Burwick Law. Not securities fraud. Consumer protection law. Simpler argument: you marketed a product with promises you didn't keep.
The investors paid for an NFT marketplace.
The token holders paid for utility.
They both got a casino.
