Blur, once the largest marketplace for trading Ethereum NFTs, is shutting down its website next month after trading activity collapsed more than 99% from its peak. The marketplace announced Monday that its website will close on November 12, marking the second major retreat in ten days for projects built by crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre.
Monthly trading volume plunged from approximately $1.43 billion in March 2023 to less than $7 million in March 2026. The BLUR token fell more than 20% following the announcement, trading around $0.015.
The marketplace said its NFT lending service, Blend, will stop arranging new loans as of the closure date. Borrowers must repay their loans or allow them to default by November 12. Blur plans to provide a separate tool afterward for withdrawing assets from Blend.
Blur's underlying smart contracts will remain operational on Ethereum, meaning the shutdown does not eliminate the blockchain-based trading system. BLUR tokenholders will retain control of its fee switch, a mechanism allowing them to vote on whether the marketplace should start charging trading fees.
The platform generated no revenue from transaction fees despite billions of dollars in NFT trades. Token Terminal records show $0 in protocol revenue over the past three years, though this figure does not establish whether Blur earned money from its lending service or other activities.
Launched in 2022, Blur challenged OpenSea by offering professional traders faster transactions, low fees and token rewards. The strategy helped Blur capture more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume at its peak in March 2023.
The closure follows the October 2 shutdown announcement from Blast, an Ethereum scaling network also created by Roquerre. Blast once attracted more than $2 billion in assets but fell to approximately $32 million when developers announced the closure, citing that the network cost more to operate than it generated in revenue. Blast users have until October 26 to withdraw through the network's regular interface.
