NFT Collectors Cheer Blur’s Planned Website Shutdown

NFT marketplace Blur plans to close its website on Nov. 12 while keeping its onchain marketplace open. The decision prompted some collectors to celebrate the planned end of the platform’s website.

Blur announced the plan Monday in its first post on X in more than a year. The company did not explain why it will close the website or reduce activity on Blend, its peer-to-peer perpetual NFT lending protocol.

Blend will stop matching new perpetual NFT loans. Borrowers must repay outstanding loans by Nov. 12 or allow them to default, Blur wrote. The company plans to provide an interface that will let users withdraw assets after the website closes.

The announcement renewed criticism of Blur’s role in the decline of creator royalties. In a reply on X, NFT collector Cryptobscure wrote, “Good riddance. You destroyed NFTs. Please shut down and never come back.”

Another collector, starfruit, posted: “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.”

Blur launched on Oct. 19, 2022, with a system that let sellers set their own royalty payments. The marketplace offered larger potential token rewards to traders who paid higher royalties. Its model encouraged users to bid on and resell NFTs, helping Blur become the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume in 2023.

Royalty protections had already begun to weaken when Blur launched. Magic Eden moved to optional royalties the previous week. OpenSea later reduced royalty requirements for new collections as competition in the market changed.

Effective creator royalty fees fell to 0.6% in July 2023 from an average of 2.5% in 2022, according to blockchain analytics data from Nansen. The data identified Blur’s growth, its minimum royalty policy and OpenSea’s lower requirements as factors in the decline.

NFT trading has since fallen from its 2022 peak. CryptoSlam data shows that NFT sales totaled $167 million across 2.9 million transactions in September. In January 2022, sales reached $6 billion across 13.7 million transactions.

Other NFT platforms have reduced services or announced closures. Nifty Gateway and social collecting platform Rodeo announced plans to wind down in January. Foundation announced its closure in April after a sale intended to keep it operating fell through. Binance ended NFT support on its exchange and shifted asset management to Binance Wallet.

Blur’s onchain marketplace will remain available after the website closes. The company has not specified how users will access all marketplace functions after the frontend shuts down. Its planned withdrawal interface is expected to support users after the closure.