OpenSea has long been the most popular marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Since it was launched in December 2017, the platform has racked up nearly $35 billion in terms of traded volume. However, it has recently been de-throned as the leading NFT marketplace, with the newly launched Blur project overtaking OpenSea in terms of daily trading volume.
At the time of writing, Blur had a daily trading volume of nearly $105 million, as opposed to OpenSea’s $21.25 million, taking it to the top spot on DeFiLlama’s NFT marketplace rankings. But what is Blur and how is it a threat to OpenSea? Tag along to find out.
Blur NFT marketplace: What is it?
Launched in October 2017, Blur is an upcoming marketplace and NFT aggregator. Therefore, besides allowing users to buy and sell NFTs, the platform also offers services such as analytics, portfolio management, and NFT price comparisons across different marketplaces. Currently, Blur aggregates NFTs from leading marketplaces like LooksRare, OpenSea, X2Y2, and more. This allows users to buy multiple NFTs from different marketplaces at the same time.
Why is Blur gaining popularity?
To begin with, the project has received funding from web3 heavyweights, including Paradigm, Coinbase Ventures & E-GIRL Capital. Moreover, it offers some lucrative features and benefits, such as zero trading fees and artist royalties. The zero-trading fee also allows buyers and NFT project owners to “sweep the floors.”
This refers to the practice of buying up all the NFTs that are currently at their floor price so that they can be resold later at a higher price. It’s sort of like scalpers buying tickets for a show and then reselling them later.
The platform has also carried out an airdrop of its native token, BLUR, on February 15. This is one day after the token was listed on several popular crypto exchanges, including ByBit, Coinbase, OKX, Uniswap, etc. The airdrop rewarded the most active traders on the platform and was hugely successful.
In all, the platform gave away 360 million BLUR tokens to its most prolific users. The airdrop has pushed Blur’s market capitalisation to new heights, bringing it close to the $492 million mark at the time of writing.
This is the third airdrop for the platform. Blur had initially airdropped “care packages” to its most active community members in October and November last year. These care packages contained NFTs of varying rarity, including Unrevealed, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary.
Users were finally allowed to sell their care packages for BLUR after the token was listed on exchanges last week. The airdrop and sale of care packages have caused the trading volume to spike. This is because more than 90 percent of all users decided to offload the airdropped tokens.
Blur’s analytics tab also received a lot of praise from users. Unlike OpenSea, which requires its users to toggle between tabs to view their account data, Blur places all its analytics, including sales history and more, on one page. The platform also has features such as gas fee tracking, a live ETH price ticker and dark-light modes as standard. These features make it an ideal solution for both pro and novice investors.
Another feature driving the success of Blur is the speed of the platform. The project’s developers claim that it is 10 times faster than its immediate rival, Gem. The platform also updates prices every four seconds, allowing for more accurate analytics and better-informed trading.
Conclusion
Blur has shot to popularity in the last few months. The platform offers several user-centric features and benefits that have made it a hit amongst NFT traders and project owners. As such, it was only a matter of time before it toppled market leader OpenSea to gain the #1 position amongst NFT marketplaces. The platform’s trading volume touched $415 million in February alone, that’s a massive 150 percent spike from November 2022.
Since then, several users have jumped ship from OpenSea to Blur in the last few days. In a bid to recapture lost market share, OpenSea announced that it would temporarily remove trading fees and cut down on creator royalties. But is this a case of “too little, too late” or will OpenSea recover its #1 position after the buzz around Blur dies down? That only time will tell.
