Blur will close its website on November 12 as monthly NFT trading volume falls from a peak of approximately $1.43 billion in 2023 to less than $7 million. The move follows an October 2 shutdown announcement from its sister project, Blast, making it the second major retreat within ten days for ventures linked to crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre.
Once the dominant marketplace for Ethereum NFTs, Blur is winding down its main website after trading activity declined by more than 99% from its record levels. The decision signals a sharp reversal for a platform that previously led the Ethereum NFT market.
In a Monday announcement, Blur confirmed that its website would shut down on November 12. Its NFT lending service, Blend, will simultaneously stop arranging new loans.
Borrowers must settle their outstanding Blend loans by November 12 or face default. Blur intends to offer a separate tool for withdrawing assets after the closure, but it has not announced a release date for that service.
Although the website will disappear, Blur’s underlying smart contracts will remain operational on Ethereum. BLUR tokenholders will also retain authority over the protocol’s fee switch, allowing them to vote on whether marketplace trading fees should be introduced.
The announcement comes after Blast, an Ethereum scaling network created by Roquerre, also known as Pacman, announced its shutdown on October 2. Blast was developed by the same team responsible for Blur.
At its height, Blast attracted more than $2 billion in assets, partly through reward programs designed to encourage deposits. By the time developers announced the shutdown, assets on the network had declined to roughly $32 million. The team said operating expenses exceeded the revenue generated by the network.
Blur’s Trading Volume Plunges From Its Peak
Blur launched in 2022 and challenged OpenSea by focusing on professional NFT traders. Its strategy emphasized faster transactions, lower fees, and token-based rewards to attract users.
The approach helped the marketplace capture more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume in March 2023, when monthly activity reached around $1.43 billion, according to DefiLlama data.
By March 2026, its monthly trading volume had fallen below $7 million, a drop of more than 99.5% from its peak.
Despite processing billions of dollars in NFT trades, Blur generated no marketplace transaction-fee revenue because it did not charge users for trading. Token Terminal records show zero protocol revenue over the past three years. That figure, however, does not confirm whether the platform generated income through Blend or other activities.
The marketplace’s incentive programs also faced criticism for encouraging speculative trading and putting pressure on NFT creator royalties. However, volume figures alone do not reveal how much trading came from genuine buyers compared with users seeking token rewards.
BLUR Token Declines Following Shutdown News
Blur has not publicly attributed its website closure to operating losses, unlike Blast, whose developers cited an unsustainable relationship between costs and revenue.
The Blur website continues to promote zero marketplace fees and more than $7.4 billion in cumulative trading volume, underscoring the scale of its earlier success.
Following Monday’s announcement, BLUR fell more than 20%, trading near $0.015.
Blast users have until October 26 to withdraw assets through the network’s regular interface. Blur’s website will close on November 12, establishing a separate deadline for users who rely on its main platform to access its services.
