Blur will shut down its website on November 12 after monthly trading volume plunged from approximately $1.43 billion at its 2023 peak to less than $7 million. The announcement comes just ten days after its sister project, Blast, revealed plans to shut down.
Blur, formerly the leading marketplace for Ethereum-based NFTs, plans to close its website next month following a decline of more than 99% in trading activity from its peak. The move marks the second major retreat in ten days involving projects developed by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre.
The marketplace announced on Monday that its website would close on November 12. Its NFT lending platform, Blend, will also stop matching new loans.
Borrowers must repay their outstanding loans by the deadline or face default. Blur said it intends to introduce a separate tool after the shutdown to help users withdraw assets held through Blend.
The underlying Blur smart contracts will continue operating on Ethereum, meaning the website closure will not completely disable the blockchain-based trading infrastructure. BLUR tokenholders will also retain control of the protocol’s fee switch, allowing them to vote on whether the marketplace should introduce trading fees.
The decision follows an October 2 announcement that Blast, an Ethereum scaling network also founded by Roquerre, known as Pacman, would shut down. Blast was developed by the same team behind Blur.
Blast previously attracted more than $2 billion in assets, partly by offering rewards to users who deposited funds. By the time the shutdown was announced, its assets had dropped to approximately $32 million. Developers said the network’s operating expenses exceeded the revenue it generated.
Blur’s Rise and Dramatic Trading Decline
Blur experienced a similarly rapid rise after launching in 2022. It challenged OpenSea’s position as the leading NFT marketplace by offering professional traders faster transactions, lower fees, and token-based incentives.
The strategy helped Blur capture more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume in March 2023, when its monthly activity reached approximately $1.43 billion, according to DefiLlama data.
By March 2026, however, monthly trading volume had fallen below $7 million, representing a decline of more than 99.5% from its peak.
Despite processing billions of dollars in NFT trades, Blur did not generate transaction-fee revenue because it charged users no marketplace fees. Token Terminal records show zero protocol revenue over the past three years. However, these figures do not establish whether Blur generated income through its lending service or other business activities.
The platform’s aggressive reward programs also attracted criticism for encouraging speculative trading and putting pressure on royalties paid to NFT creators. Nevertheless, trading-volume figures alone cannot determine how much activity came from genuine NFT buyers versus participants seeking token rewards.
BLUR Token Drops Following Shutdown Announcement
Unlike Blast, Blur has not publicly attributed its decision to close the website to operating losses.
The marketplace’s website continues to promote zero trading fees and more than $7.4 billion in cumulative trading volume, highlighting the scale of its earlier growth.
Following Monday’s announcement, the BLUR token fell by more than 20%, trading at around $0.015.
Blast users have until October 26 to withdraw their assets through the network’s regular interface. Blur’s website closure is scheduled for November 12, giving users a separate deadline to prepare for the shutdown of its primary access point.
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