Magic Eden Airdrop Checker Leaves Users Frustrated

Magic Eden, the third-largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, just released its airdrop eligibility checker, and users are already voicing frustrations over the experience.

Unlike most airdrops, where users can plug in a wallet address or connect their wallet to a website, Magic Eden requires users to download its mobile app in order to view their token allocations.

This airdrop method was first introduced in June by Blast, widely considered one of the most disappointing airdrops of the year, after launching at a lower-than-predicted valuation and its token price falling over 50% from its token generation event (TGE) value.

While it’s presumed Magic Eden and Blast implemented these distribution methods in order to onboard users to native mobile applications, many crypto-natives are extremely hesitant to mix mobile devices with their wallets, considering the industry's long history of mobile-based hacks such as sim-swaps.

One user known as Wazz on social media quickly replied to Magic Eden and said, “I don't use crypto on mobile; why are u forcing users to download a new wallet app. Horrible UX.”

Magic Eden is the leading NFT marketplace for Solana and Ordinals NFTs, and also supports Bitcoin Runes and BRCs. The marketplace also supports the EVM ecosystem, but it still falls short of both OpenSea and Blur in terms of volume and unique users.

Anticipation surrounding the Magic Eden airdrop has intensified over the last week after Hyperliquid’s well-received HYPE airdrop, where over $1 billion worth of HYPE tokens were distributed amongst users. Since the airdrop on Nov. 29, the price of HYPE has surged over 300% from $3 to as high as $13 per token.

Magic Eden’s token, ME, is expected to be tradeable on Dec 10.