Blur NFT Marketplace to Close Website and Halt New Loans

Blur Marketplace to Cease Operations on November 12

Ethereum-based NFT marketplace Blur has announced it will shut down its website, blur.io, on November 12. While the frontend will be discontinued, the underlying marketplace protocol will remain functional on-chain, allowing holders of the BLUR token to retain control over the fee switch.

On the same day, the platform's NFT lending feature, known as Blend, will stop facilitating new loans. Users are required to either repay their existing loans or allow them to default before the shutdown. Post-closure, Blur plans to introduce a tool to assist users in withdrawing their assets from Blend.

Current State of the NFT Market

Blur launched in 2022 and quickly gained traction, surpassing OpenSea in trading volume. However, the NFT market has seen a significant decline since its peak. Statista estimates that global NFT market revenue will only reach $318.3 million by 2026, remaining stagnant compared to previous years.

Recent data shows that monthly NFT sales volume plummeted to $167.2 million in September, a drastic drop from $554.8 million a year earlier and a staggering $1.78 billion in December 2023. Despite the decrease in trading volume, lower-priced NFTs have led to an increase in the number of sales, according to DappRadar.

This announcement follows the earlier closure of Blast, a layer-2 Ethereum network developed by the Blur team, which shut down due to operational costs exceeding earnings. Users of Blast were given until October 26 to withdraw their funds after the platform drew over $2.3 billion in deposits prior to its mainnet launch in February 2024.