Blur, once the leading marketplace for trading non-fungible tokens on Ethereum, will close its website on Nov. 12 after monthly trading volume dropped more than 99% from its 2023 peak. The platform will also stop arranging new loans through its Blend lending service, although its underlying Ethereum smart contracts will remain active.
According to CoinDesk, the retreat comes just 10 days after Blast, another crypto project created by entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre, announced that it would shut down. The decisions mark a sharp reversal for products that used token incentives and low-cost access to attract substantial activity in the digital-asset market.
Website closure will not remove the underlying contracts
Blur said its website will stop operating on Nov. 12. Blend will no longer arrange new NFT-backed loans from that date, and borrowers will have until then to repay existing loans or let them default. The platform plans to offer a separate tool after the closure so users can withdraw assets held through Blend.
The website shutdown will not deactivate Blur’s Ethereum smart contracts. Those contracts are the blockchain-based infrastructure that supports the marketplace’s operations, meaning the system itself will remain deployed on Ethereum even though the company’s web interface is being closed.
BLUR tokenholders will also retain control of the platform’s fee switch. This mechanism allows holders to vote on whether Blur should begin charging trading fees. The marketplace has historically advertised zero fees for users, but it has not generated protocol revenue from transaction fees during the past three years, according to Token Terminal records.
The token fell more than 20% after the closure announcement and was trading at about $0.015, according to the source material.
From Ethereum NFT leader to marginal activity
Blur launched in 2022 and challenged OpenSea, then the established leader in Ethereum NFT trading. It focused on professional traders by promoting faster transactions, low fees and token rewards. That approach helped it capture more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume in March 2023.
Monthly trading reached approximately $1.43 billion at that peak, based on DefiLlama data cited in the report. By March 2026, however, monthly volume had fallen below $7 million. The change represents a decline of more than 99.5%.
Blur’s lifetime trading volume remains advertised on its website at more than $7.4 billion. But the historical total contrasts with the platform’s recent activity and highlights how quickly NFT-market turnover has contracted from its earlier high point.
The absence of transaction-fee revenue is another important part of the business picture. Token Terminal records zero protocol revenue for Blur over the past three years, despite the billions of dollars in NFT trades conducted through the marketplace. That measure does not show whether Blur generated income from Blend or from other activities.
Blur’s trading model also drew criticism. Its incentive programs were accused of encouraging speculative activity and increasing pressure on royalties paid to NFT creators. Trading data alone cannot determine how much of the recorded volume came from genuine NFT buyers and how much was generated by traders seeking rewards.
A second shutdown for Roquerre’s projects
The closure follows Blast’s Oct. 2 shutdown announcement. Blast is an Ethereum scaling network developed by the team behind Blur and created by Roquerre, who is also known by the nickname Pacman.
Blast had previously attracted more than $2 billion in assets, in part by offering rewards to users who deposited funds. By the time developers announced the shutdown, that amount had declined to roughly $32 million. The team said the network cost more to operate than it generated in revenue.
Blur has not publicly attributed its own closure to operating losses. Its announcement instead sets out the practical timetable for ending website operations and new Blend lending while keeping the smart contracts online.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar data recorded at 09:29 on Oct. 13, 2026, showed Ethereum at $2,505.1183686165, down 1.78% over 24 hours and 7.11% over seven days. Other selected crypto assets were also lower:
- Shiba Inu was $0.0000051981, down 4.57% in 24 hours and 11.22% over seven days.
- Uniswap was $7.4222326369, down 2.66% in 24 hours and 16.12% over seven days.
- Pepe was $0.0000040895, down 2.91% in 24 hours and 5.56% over seven days.
The market data does not establish a direct connection between these price movements and Blur’s closure. It provides a snapshot of broader selected crypto-market performance at the time of reporting, while Blur’s decision specifically concerns an NFT marketplace and its associated lending service.
