Blur, the NFT marketplace that at one point led Ethereum-based trading, has announced plans to shut down its website. According to the reporting reviewed by FXMARE, the closure is scheduled for Nov. 12, and the platform will also stop issuing new loans through its Blend lending product around the same period.
The decision follows a steep drop in activity. Monthly trading on the venue peaked at about $1.43 billion in 2023 and has since slid to less than $7 million, a decline that coverage of the announcement describes as roughly 99%. The retreat mirrors a broader slump across the sector, where NFT trading volumes are far below the levels reached during the 2021-2022 boom. Market revenue for the category is projected at $318 million this year.
The news arrives shortly after a related development. Wire reports note that Blast, a sister project to Blur, disclosed its own plan to shut down about ten days before the Blur announcement, which places the two closures in close succession.
The announcement has also reopened debate about how Blur grew. The marketplace overtook OpenSea during the NFT boom by combining token rewards for traders with an approach to creator royalties that cut payments to artists and project founders. Commentary around the planned closure has revisited those policies, and some NFT collectors have reacted positively to the exit, citing the harm those practices did to creators.
Blend, the product on which new loans are being halted, allowed users to borrow against NFTs they owned. The sources reviewed do not detail how existing loans will be handled after the website goes offline, and FXMARE has not reported specifics on that point.
Taken together, the closure of a platform that once led the segment underscores how much the NFT market has contracted since its peak, with trading volumes and market revenue both well below earlier highs.