Blur, once the largest NFT marketplace on Ethereum, will close its website on November 12, 2026. Monthly trading volume on the platform fell from $1.43 billion in March 2023 to under $7 million in March 2026, a drop of more than 99.5%. The BLUR token lost over 20% after the news and trades near $0.015.
The decision came ten days after the same team announced the closure of its Blast network. For the NFT market, that is the second blow in a short time from one builder.
What exactly shuts down on November 12
Blur announced it on X, its first post there in more than a year. Only the frontend at blur.io is going away, meaning the site traders used. The marketplace smart contracts on Ethereum stay live, and BLUR holders keep control of the fee switch. A vote through it could turn on trading fees.
The second part concerns Blend, a lending service where users borrow against NFTs. It will stop matching new loans on the same date. Borrowers have until November 12 to repay or let the debt default, and only afterward does Blur promise a separate tool for withdrawing assets from Blend.
The team gave no reason. Blast spoke openly about losses, while Blur stays silent.
From $1.43 billion to $7 million in three years
Blur launched on October 19, 2022 with a token airdrop for traders and quickly passed OpenSea. In March 2023 it handled over 70% of NFT trading volume on Ethereum, with monthly turnover near $1.43 billion according to DefiLlama. By March 2026 that figure had slid below $7 million.
The platform charged no fees. Token Terminal shows $0 in protocol revenue over the last three years, even though billions of dollars in trades went through the marketplace. That data does not say whether Blur earned anything from lending through Blend. The site still advertises $7.4 billion in lifetime volume.
The NFT market is shrinking alongside Blur
According to CryptoSlam, NFT sales reached $167.2 million in September 2026. A year earlier the same month brought $554.8 million, and December 2023 delivered $1.78 billion. The absolute peak came in January 2022: $6 billion in sales and 13.7 million transactions.
September saw 2.9 million transactions, so the number of deals fell less sharply than the money. DappRadar links this to cheaper NFTs, so there are more sales but smaller tickets. Statista puts revenue for the whole NFT market in 2026 at $318.3 million, roughly flat on last year.
In percentages the picture looks like this. Against September 2025, sales shrank by about 70%, against December 2023 by more than 90%, and against the January 2022 peak by 97%. The average ticket in September works out to about $58 per transaction, while the peak month averaged roughly $438.
Who left the market before Blur
Blur is not the first. Nifty Gateway, owned by Gemini, and the Rodeo platform announced wind-downs in January, while Foundation closed in April after a sale meant to save it fell through. Binance ended NFT support on its exchange and moved the management of such assets to Binance Wallet.
Blur's closest relative, the Blast network, once held over $2 billion in assets, largely thanks to deposit rewards. About $32 million was left when the shutdown was announced. Developers explained the decision by saying the network costs more to run than it earns. Withdrawals are open until October 26.
The calendar is tight. Blast announced its closure on October 2, Blur spoke about its website on October 12, the last day to withdraw from Blast falls on October 26, and on November 12 blur.io disappears and new loans in Blend end.
Royalties, rewards and an old grudge against Blur
Some collectors greeted the news with relief. Critics say token rewards encouraged quick NFT flipping, while the minimum royalty policy pressured creators. Nansen data shows effective royalty rates dropping from an average of 2.5% in 2022 to 0.6% in July 2023, and analysts tied much of that gap to Blur's growth.
OpenSea later moved to optional creator fees for new collections as well. How much of Blur's trading came from real buyers and how much from reward hunters, the figures do not show.
What remains after November 12
The consequences differ by user group.
- Blend borrowers must repay the debt by November 12, otherwise the position defaults.
- Owners of NFTs sitting in Blend will get a separate withdrawal tool, but Blur has not named a date for it.
- Traders are left with direct contract calls or other marketplaces after the site closes, and a wallet such as MetaMask will have to connect to those instead.
- BLUR holders keep their vote on the fee switch, so the protocol could in theory run under a different model.
The summary in numbers is short. 99.5% less volume, zero revenue and two closures from one team in ten days. Blur's contracts will keep running, but without an interface they appeal mostly to experienced users. Whether the NFT market revives will be shown not by Blur but by where September's $167 million in sales goes next.
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