Blur to close its NFT site Nov. 12 as trading falls over 99% from peak
By Coinvote
Blur will close its website on Nov. 12 and stop new lending through Blend, while its contracts stay live on Ethereum. The move follows the Oct. 2 shutdown announcement from sister network Blast and a collapse in marketplace volume that CoinDesk puts at more than 99% from the March 2023 peak.
Blur will close its website on Nov. 12 while contracts stay live
Blur said on X on Monday that its website will go dark on Nov. 12, Cointelegraph reported, in the account's first post in more than a year. The onchain marketplace will remain operational. Blend, Blur's peer-to-peer perpetual NFT lending protocol, will no longer match new loans.
Outstanding loans must be repaid by Nov. 12, or borrowers can let them default. Blur has promised a withdrawal tool afterward, which CoinDesk described as a separate way to pull assets out of Blend. The Block also reported the frontend closure, adding that the BLUR token fell more than 20%.
CoinDesk stressed that Blur's smart contracts remain on Ethereum, so the closure does not remove the trading system itself. BLUR tokenholders also keep the fee switch, a vote over whether Blur begins charging a fee on trades.
The numbers behind a decline of more than 99%
CoinDesk draws on DefiLlama and Token Terminal for its figures on Blur. It cautioned that the revenue figure does not show whether lending or other activities earned money, and that volume alone cannot separate genuine buyers from traders chasing rewards.
- In March 2023, Blur handled about $1.43 billion in monthly volume and held more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading, according to DefiLlama.
- By March 2026, monthly volume had dropped below $7 million, a decline of more than 99.5%.
- Blur's website still advertises more than $7.4 billion in lifetime trading volume and zero marketplace fees.
- Token Terminal data shows zero protocol revenue for Blur across the previous three years.
Blast announced its own closure ten days earlier
CoinDesk noted that Blur's decision came after Blast announced its own closure on Oct. 2. Blast is an Ethereum scaling network created by Tieshun Roquerre, who goes by Pacman, with the Blur team handling its development. Assets on the network once exceeded $2 billion, helped by rewards for depositors, but the total had fallen to approximately $32 million by the time of the announcement.
Developers said running the network cost more than it earned. Withdrawals through the regular interface remain open until Oct. 26.
Blur has given no comparable explanation. CoinDesk noted that, unlike Blast, Blur has not publicly blamed operating losses, and Cointelegraph said Blur did not disclose a reason.
Royalty fights explain why some collectors cheered
Cointelegraph quoted collectors on X welcoming the news. One, posting as Cryptobscure, replied "Good riddance" and accused Blur of harming NFTs.
The criticism centers on Blur's incentive design. It launched on Oct. 19, 2022, letting sellers customize royalty payments while pairing that flexibility with bigger prospective token rewards for users who paid higher creator royalties. Magic Eden had moved to optional royalties the week before.
Nansen reported that in July 2023 the effective royalty rate paid to creators stood at 0.6%, down from a 2.5% average in 2022, and credited much of the gap to Blur's expansion, its minimum-royalty policy and OpenSea relaxing its own requirement. OpenSea later moved to optional creator fees for new collections.
The closure arrives in a much smaller NFT market
Cointelegraph, citing CryptoSlam, put September NFT sales at $167 million over 2.9 million transactions, against $6 billion over 13.7 million in January 2022.
Other venues have also pulled back. Gemini-owned Nifty Gateway and Rodeo announced plans in January to wind down, and Foundation announced in April that it would close after a sale meant to keep it running failed. Binance has also stopped supporting NFTs on its exchange, shifting asset management to Binance Wallet.
Where the three outlets agree and where they differ
All three report the website closing next month and the marketplace staying onchain. CoinDesk and The Block both put the BLUR decline at more than 20%, while Cointelegraph focuses on collector reaction and royalty history and CoinDesk adds volume, revenue and Blast context.
No outlet reports a reason from Blur. The Block's headline pairs the closure with dwindling NFT trading volume, but Cointelegraph says Blur did not disclose why, and CoinDesk notes it has not pointed to operating losses. The figures also measure different things, since DefiLlama tracks Blur's Ethereum trading while CryptoSlam totals cover sales across the whole NFT market.
What to watch before and after Nov. 12
Several questions remain open. Blur has not said why it is closing, and the zero-revenue figure leaves unclear whether its lending service earned anything. It is also unresolved whether BLUR tokenholders will ever use the fee switch, and how much trading continues through the contracts once the website is gone.
The firm dates are Oct. 26 for Blast withdrawals and Nov. 12 for Blur's website and Blend repayments. Readers tracking projects on Ethereum, where Blur's contracts remain, can browse Coinvote's list of new Ethereum tokens, which shows 11 listings over the past 30 days.
Market snapshot
| Asset | Price | 24h | 7d | Market cap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethereum (ETH) | $2,531 | -1.6% | -6.2% | $309.06 billion |
| XRP (XRP) | $1.38 | -2.8% | -8.2% | $86.84 billion |
CoinGecko data as of 2026-10-13 (UTC); DeFi TVL from DefiLlama: Ethereum $51.40 billion.
On Coinvote
- New Ethereum Tokens Listed Today: 2,924 projects tracked, 1 new listing in 7 days, 81 community votes today.
- Best Ethereum Meme Coins Today: 256 projects tracked, 0 new listings in 7 days, 42 community votes today.
FAQ
When will Blur close its website?
Blur said its website will shut down on Nov. 12, according to Cointelegraph and CoinDesk. The onchain marketplace and its smart contracts remain operational on Ethereum, while Blend stops arranging new loans.
What happens to Blend loans after the shutdown?
Outstanding loans must be repaid by Nov. 12 or left to default, according to Cointelegraph. Blur has promised a separate withdrawal tool for assets after the closure.
How much has Blur's trading volume fallen?
CoinDesk, citing DefiLlama, reports monthly volume of about $1.43 billion in March 2023 and below $7 million by March 2026, a decline of more than 99.5%. CoinDesk adds that the figures do not show how much trading came from genuine buyers.
Sources
- Cointelegraph: Blur is shutting down its website, so why are NFT collectors cheering? (2026-10-13)
- CoinDesk: Once-largest Ethereum NFT marketplace Blur is shutting down after volumes collapse 99% (2026-10-13)
- The Block: Blur to shut down frontend next month as NFT trading volume dwindles (2026-10-12)
- CoinGecko (market data), DefiLlama (TVL), Coinvote listing and vote data
Written by the Coinvote news desk from reporting by Cointelegraph, CoinDesk and The Block. Not financial advice.
