Blur is set to shut down its website on November 12 after monthly NFT trading volume plunged from around $1.43 billion at its 2023 peak to less than $7 million. The announcement follows the planned closure of its sister project, Blast, which revealed its shutdown plans on October 2.

The former leading marketplace for Ethereum NFTs has lost more than 99% of its peak trading activity. Its closure marks another major retreat within ten days for projects associated with crypto entrepreneur Tieshun Roquerre.

Blur confirmed on Monday that its website would close on November 12. Its NFT lending platform, Blend, will also stop matching new loans from that date.

Borrowers must repay outstanding loans by the deadline or risk default. The company plans to release a separate tool to help users withdraw their Blend assets after the website closes, although the launch date remains unknown.

The website shutdown will not deactivate Blur’s underlying smart contracts, which will continue running on Ethereum. BLUR tokenholders will also retain control of the protocol’s fee switch, allowing them to vote on whether the marketplace should introduce trading fees.

The decision comes shortly after Blast, an Ethereum scaling network created by Roquerre, widely known as Pacman, announced its own shutdown on October 2. Blast was built by the same team behind Blur.

Blast previously held more than $2 billion in assets, with deposit incentives helping attract users. By the time the closure was announced, assets on the network had fallen to approximately $32 million. Developers said the cost of operating the network exceeded the revenue it produced.

Blur’s NFT Trading Activity Nearly Disappears

Since launching in 2022, Blur has competed with OpenSea by targeting professional NFT traders with faster transactions, low fees, and token rewards.

The strategy helped the marketplace capture more than 70% of Ethereum NFT trading volume in March 2023. Monthly trading activity reached approximately $1.43 billion that month, according to DefiLlama data.

By March 2026, volume had dropped below $7 million, representing a decline of more than 99.5% from its peak.

Despite billions of dollars in trades, Blur recorded no revenue from marketplace transaction fees because it allowed users to trade without paying them. Token Terminal data shows zero protocol revenue over the past three years, although this does not establish whether Blend or other services generated income.

Blur’s incentive programs also drew criticism for promoting speculative trading and increasing pressure on royalties paid to NFT creators. However, trading volumes alone cannot establish how much activity involved genuine buyers versus participants primarily pursuing rewards.

BLUR Falls After Website Closure Announcement

Unlike Blast, Blur has not publicly said that operating losses were behind its decision to close the website.

The marketplace’s website still advertises zero trading fees and more than $7.4 billion in lifetime trading volume, reflecting the scale of its earlier success.

BLUR dropped more than 20% after Monday’s announcement, trading at around $0.015.

Blast users have until October 26 to withdraw assets through the network’s standard interface. Blur’s website closure is scheduled for November 12, giving its users a separate deadline to prepare for the loss of the platform’s main interface.