Blur Shuts Down Website After NFT Trading Collapse
The Ethereum NFT marketplace will shut down its website on November 12, and Blend will also stop issuing new loans. The underlying smart contracts will remain active on Ethereum.
Key Takeaways
- Blur is shutting down its website on November 12 after NFT trading activity collapsed by more than 99%.
- Blend will then stop arranging new loans; outstanding loans must be repaid before that date or could go into default.
- The underlying smart contracts will remain active on Ethereum, while the BLUR token fell more than 20% after the announcement.
Blur, once the largest marketplace for Ethereum NFTs, is shutting down its website next month after trading activity plunged by more than 99%. It is the second major pullback in ten days from projects tied to crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre.
Website Shuts Down on November 12
Blur said Monday that the website will go offline on November 12. Blend, the platform's NFT lending service, will also stop arranging new loans then. Loans that are already open must be repaid before that date or could go into default.
After the shutdown, Blur does want to offer a separate tool that lets users withdraw their assets from Blend. The underlying smart contracts will remain active on Ethereum, so the blockchain base of the trading system will not disappear. BLUR holders will also keep control of the fee switch, which lets them vote on whether trading fees should be introduced.
From Rapid Growth to Decline
Blur launched in 2022 and took on OpenSea by offering professional traders fast transactions, low fees, and token rewards. That approach worked well at first: in March 2023, Blur controlled more than 70% of Ethereum NFT volume, according to DefiLlama, with about $1.43 billion (€1.3 billion) in monthly trading.
By March 2026, that monthly volume had fallen to under $7 million (€6.3 million). That is a drop of more than 99.5%. Over the past three years, the platform recorded no protocol revenue from transaction fees, according to Token Terminal, despite billions of dollars in NFT trading. It is unclear whether Blur generated any income through Blend or other activities.
What This Says About NFTs
Blur's rapid rise and fall fits into a broader cooling-off in the NFT market. Since the 2021 peak, trading volumes on many NFT platforms have fallen by more than 90%, showing just how sharply that market has shrunk. For European crypto followers, that matters because it shows how hard it is for NFT platforms to keep users while also building a sustainable business model.
Blur's aggressive reward programs were previously criticized because they could fuel speculative trading and put pressure on creator royalties. The platform still shows zero marketplace fees on its website and more than $7.4 billion (€6.6 billion) in lifetime trading volume. BLUR fell more than 20% after the announcement and traded around $0.015 (€0.013).
