The NFT marketplace Magic Eden has announced that it will incorporate BRC-20 token functionality on its open-source secondary marketplace and creator launchpad, according to information shared with nft now. The announcement comes just two months after the platform introduced Launchpad for Bitcoin Ordinals, the protocol that allows NFTs to be traded on the Bitcoin blockchain.  

The update, which will go into effect at 8:00 pm ET on June 27, lets users collect BRC-20 projects directly. It also furnishes creators with the capability to release their own BRC-20 drops for minting directly on the platform itself. 

Expanding a nascent Web3 ecosystem

Bitcoin Request for Comment 20 (BRC-20) tokens are one of the most recent developments in the Bitcoin ecosystem. Created in March 2023 by the anonymous developer known as Domo, the token standard enables the minting and transferring of fungible tokens with the Ordinals protocol on the Bitcoin blockchain. They are similar to ERC-20 tokens, the Ethereum blockchain protocol standard for creating tokens that have built-in smart contracts and that are compatible with the wider Ethereum ecosystem.

Common ERC-20 tokens are USD Coin (USDC) and Binance USD (BUSD) and are readily tradable on exchanges. While users could previously take advantage of platforms like Unisat and Alex to interact with BRC-20s, their Web3 infrastructure is comparably far less developed compared to ERC-20s. Magic Eden’s incorporation could help significantly expand the token’s reach and accessibility.

“Our aim has always been to alleviate the fragmentation between Bitcoin ordinals and BRC-20,” Zhuoxun Yin, Co-Founder and COO of Magic Eden, said of the development in a press release. “By incorporating BRC-20 into our platform, we’re on a mission to simplify the user experience. This represents a significant stride in our quest to architect the most comprehensive NFT platform for the Bitcoin ecosystem.”

Ordinals on the rise

Bitcoin Ordinals first debuted in January 2023 and were largely viewed as a little more than a novel development that would pique the interest of only a niche crowd, even with Web3. Despite this, the ecosystem has continued to grow exponentially, resulting in over 13 million Ordinals Inscriptions being minted on the blockchain and projects from a range of blockchain ecosystems creating Ordinals collections. With no sign of slowing down, Web3 companies are looking for ways to capitalize on the expanding Bitcoin fungible and non-fungible world, and it’s unlikely that Magic Eden will be the last to do so.

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