Magic

Magic is a developer-focused wallet infrastructure and authentication platform that lets teams embed non-custodial wallets directly into their applications without requiring users to manage seed phrases or private keys. Founded in 2018 and headquartered in San Francisco, Magic has grown into one of the most widely deployed wallet-as-a-service (WaaS) providers in the industry, serving more than 200,000 developers, 53 million wallets, and 18,000 applications across consumer apps, enterprise deployments, and decentralized finance.

Team and Funding

Magic was co-founded by Sean Li (CEO), Jaemin Jin (CPO), and Arthur Jen. Sean Li previously co-founded Kitematic, a Docker desktop interface acquired by Docker that grew to serve more than 20 million developers globally as Docker Desktop. The founding team met at the University of Waterloo before moving to San Francisco. The company has raised $83 million across three funding rounds, with its most recent being a Series B in May 2023. Clients include Polymarket, Naver (South Korea's dominant internet conglomerate), Mattel, and Polygon.

Core Mechanism and Products

Magic's flagship offering is its Embedded Wallet SDK. Rather than asking users to install browser extensions, record seed phrases, or manage raw private keys, Magic provisions non-custodial wallets through familiar Web2 authentication flows. When a user signs in with their email, Google account, passkey, or an SSO provider, Magic's infrastructure derives and secures their wallet keys using hardware-level trusted execution environments — specifically AWS Nitro TEEs. Users never handle raw key material, but Magic itself cannot access it either, preserving the non-custodial model.

Authentication methods include email one-time passcodes, social login (Google, Twitter, Farcaster), passkeys (WebAuthn), SMS, and SSO integrations with Auth0, Firebase, and NextAuth, letting teams layer Magic onto existing identity infrastructure.

The second major product is the Server Wallet API (API Wallets), designed for enterprise and agentic use cases: programmatic wallets provisioned server-side via JWT-authenticated REST APIs for autonomous on-chain actions — AI agents, treasury systems, automated settlement — without user interaction at signing time. Both product lines deliver 50–100ms latency with SDKs covering web, iOS, Android, React Native, Python, and Node.js.

Solana Integration

Magic treats Solana as a first-class supported network. The @magic-ext/solana extension enables Solana-native wallet creation: a user authenticating via email gets a Solana address derived automatically — no mnemonic, no keypair file required. For transaction signing, developers use the Magic SDK's signTransaction method (executing inside the TEE), then submit via @solana/web3.js's sendRawTransaction. This separation keeps cryptographic operations in Magic's enclave while allowing full RPC flexibility across devnet and mainnet-beta. The signMessage method handles arbitrary message signing for authentication challenges and proof-of-ownership flows. Server wallets extend the same Solana support to programmatic pipelines and agentic use cases.

Newton Protocol

In November 2025, Magic Labs announced integration of Newton Protocol, a programmable compliance layer addressing the gap between open DeFi and enterprise requirements. Newton operates as a universal policy layer: developers define rules — sanctions screening, proof-of-reserves checks, identity attestations — using off-chain oracle data, and Newton converts these into verifiable on-chain proofs. Each policy evaluation generates a cryptographic attestation on Newton Explorer, with enforcement executed by a decentralized operator network secured through EigenLayer restaking. The integration deploys Newton's SDK across Magic's full developer network, described by the companies as the largest single deployment of programmable compliance infrastructure across a live developer ecosystem at that time. In June 2025, the Magic Newton Foundation launched $NEWT, the protocol's native token, with listings on Coinbase, Binance, Bybit, Upbit, and Bithumb.

Security and Compliance

Magic holds SOC 2 Type 2, SOC 3 Type 2, ISO 27001:2022, and HIPAA certifications, alongside GDPR and CCPA compliance — among the first WaaS providers to achieve this combination. Infrastructure audits were conducted by NCC Group and A-LIGN; the company runs twice-yearly red-team exercises and a HackerOne bug bounty program. Key management rests on AWS Nitro TEE with the patent-pending TKMS (TEE Key Management System) ensuring private key material is never accessible in plaintext to Magic's own systems.

How Magic Fits the Solana Ecosystem

Magic is infrastructure, not an end-user product — it is the layer Solana-native products build on to solve onboarding friction. The requirement to install browser extensions, record seed phrases, and fund wallets before any on-chain action creates significant user drop-off. Magic maps Solana wallet creation directly onto email or social login: a user unfamiliar with Solana can create and use a Solana wallet through a Magic-powered application without any of those steps. With seven-plus years of operational history, $83 million in funding, enterprise-grade certifications, and a client base spanning consumer, DeFi, and enterprise applications, Magic is one of the most established compliance-ready wallet infrastructure providers with active Solana support.