Once the Largest NFT Marketplace on Ethereum Shuts Down

The NFT marketplace Blur, once the largest on Ethereum, will shut down its website on November 12 after a trading volume drop of more than 99% from its peak. The monthly trading volume decreased from approximately $1.43 billion in March 2023 to less than $7 million in March 2026. The lending service Blend will cease issuing new loans, and borrowers have until November 12 to repay their loans or default. Later, Blur will provide a separate tool for withdrawing assets from Blend. The underlying smart contracts of Blur will remain active on Ethereum, and token holders will retain control over the fee switch mechanism, allowing them to vote on the introduction of trading fees.

The closure follows the October 2 announcement of the shutdown of Blast, an Ethereum scaling network also created by Tejshun Roker (known as Pacman) and the Blur team. Blast once attracted over $2 billion in assets, partly through deposit rewards. By the time of the closure announcement, this amount had fallen to about $32 million, and developers stated that the network was more costly to maintain than it generated in revenue.

Blur was launched in 2022 and challenged the then-leader OpenSea by offering professional traders fast transactions, low fees, and token rewards. This helped Blur capture over 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume in March 2023, when activity on the platform reached approximately $1.43 billion. The platform did not charge trading fees: Token Terminal records $0 in protocol revenue over three years. The Blur website still advertises zero fees and over $7.4 billion in total trading volume.

Following Monday's announcement, the BLUR token fell by more than 20% and was trading around $0.015. Blast users can withdraw funds through the regular network interface until October 26.