NFT Marketplace Blur to Shut Down Frontend in November as Collector Backlash Lingers

Nonfungible token marketplace Blur, which famously once dethroned OpenSea to become the largest NFT platform by trading volume, has announced that it will be shutting down its website next month. While the sudden closure marks a dramatic chapter’s end for one of the industry’s most influential trading hubs, the news has been met with open celebration by segments of the NFT collector community who blamed the platform for deeply altering the ecosystem.

Blur made the unexpected announcement on X on Monday, marking its first post on the social media platform in more than a year. According to the announcement, the platform’s frontend website will officially shut down on Nov. 12. However, the company noted that its underlying onchain marketplace will remain operational.

Alongside the frontend closure, Blend, the peer-to-peer perpetual NFT lending protocol associated with Blur, will also stop matching new loans. Blur stated that borrowers have until the Nov. 12 deadline to repay their outstanding loans or allow them to default. The platform has also promised to provide a dedicated withdrawal interface after the shutdown takes effect to help users manage their assets.

Despite the technical reassurances, the news immediately reignited intense community debates and brought forth a wave of harsh criticism from prominent figures in the digital collectible space.

"Good riddance. You destroyed NFTs. Please shut down and never come back," wrote NFT collector Cryptobscure in a direct reply to the platform’s post on X.

Another collector, known as starfruit, posted a similarly pointed reaction: "You may not have been able to complete your mission to destroy NFTs. But you acted with extreme determination and tried everything. Congratulations to us for surviving you."

The fierce backlash highlights lingering industry resentment over the aggressive growth strategies that helped propel Blur to the absolute peak of the NFT trading charts back in 2023. At the center of the controversy were Blur’s introduction of optional creator royalties and lucrative token reward incentives designed to encourage rapid bidding and flipping among traders.

Blur’s explosive rise dramatically accelerated a broader industry shift toward lower creator royalties. Following Blur’s market penetration, rival marketplace OpenSea later moved to implement optional creator fees for newly listed collections as it fought to retain market share.

Blur originally launched on Oct. 19, 2022, introducing a novel model that allowed sellers to customize royalty payments while offering larger prospective token rewards to users who chose to pay higher creator royalties.

However, Blur entered a digital asset market where royalty protections were already beginning to weaken. Competing marketplace Magic Eden had already moved to optional royalties just the previous week, indicating a broader macroeconomic and structural trend across the sector.

The impact on creator revenues was swift and measurable. By July of the following year, blockchain analytics platform Nansen reported that effective creator royalty fees had plummeted to an average of 0.6% in July 2023, down sharply from an average of 2.5% in 2022. Nansen attributed a significant portion of that drastic decline to Blur’s rapid growth, its minimum royalty policy, and the subsequent defensive decisions by platforms like OpenSea to lower their own royalty requirements to stay competitive.

NFT sales slump from boom-era highs

Blur did not publicly disclose the specific reasons behind its corporate decision to shutter its frontend website and wind down new lending activity on Blend.

The shutdown announcement arrives at a time when the broader NFT trading market remains severely depressed, trading far below the historic highs witnessed during the 2021 and 2022 crypto boom era. Recent data from market tracker CryptoSlam illustrates the stark decline, showing that total NFT sales for September reached just $167 million spread across roughly 2.9 million total transactions. For comparison, the market reached an astronomical peak in January 2022, which recorded a staggering $6 billion in sales over 13.7 million transactions.

Blur is far from the only high-profile player to feel the financial strain of the prolonged market downturn. Gemini-owned Nifty Gateway and social collecting platform Rodeo both announced plans to wind down operations in January. Meanwhile, digital art platform Foundation announced its own closure in April after a corporate sale intended to keep the platform operating ultimately fell through. Major cryptocurrency exchange Binance also completely ended NFT support on its main exchange platform, shifting remaining asset management functions to the Binance Wallet.

Cointelegraph reached out to Blur founder Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre for additional comment regarding the upcoming website closure and the future of the underlying protocol.