📰 Blur announced that the blur.io frontend will be discontinued on November 12, 2026, and the NFT lending protocol Blend will also stop matching new loans on the same day. Strictly speaking, this doesn’t mean the on-chain protocol is disappearing entirely—the trading protocol will remain, but its main gateway will be gone, affecting user experience and the flow of funds.
🔥 This shutdown is especially striking because Blur once pushed OpenSea to the brink. Its combination of zero royalties, points airdrops, and trading incentives helped it reach more than $1.4 billion in monthly trading volume in March 2023, at one point capturing nearly 80% of the market. At its peak, Blend also accounted for over 80% of the NFT lending market.
To be honest, incentives were both Blur’s strength and its downfall. Much of the trading revolved around points and expectations of airdrops. Once the rewards weakened, wash traders and arbitrageurs naturally moved on. Later, monthly trading volume fell to around $5.1 million, daily active addresses stayed in the low hundreds—or even fewer—for an extended period, and on-chain fees remained at zero.
⚠️ There’s another practical issue: some NFTs still had approvals granted to Blur contracts. Although current investigations have found no vulnerabilities in the existing contracts, they support upgrades, and the team’s operational status is changing. Users with relevant approvals have been advised to revoke them as soon as possible using tools such as revoke.cash. This is more urgent to address than whether the project shuts down.
💡 Blur and Blast both nearing shutdown shows that hype built on rewards doesn’t necessarily translate into lasting demand. Blur once fueled the explosive growth of the NFT market, while also bringing trading, point farming, and short-term arbitrage to the forefront. Did you farm Blur points back then? Do you still have any approvals in place?
#Blur #NFT #Blend #OnChainSecurity
🔥 This shutdown is especially striking because Blur once pushed OpenSea to the brink. Its combination of zero royalties, points airdrops, and trading incentives helped it reach more than $1.4 billion in monthly trading volume in March 2023, at one point capturing nearly 80% of the market. At its peak, Blend also accounted for over 80% of the NFT lending market.
To be honest, incentives were both Blur’s strength and its downfall. Much of the trading revolved around points and expectations of airdrops. Once the rewards weakened, wash traders and arbitrageurs naturally moved on. Later, monthly trading volume fell to around $5.1 million, daily active addresses stayed in the low hundreds—or even fewer—for an extended period, and on-chain fees remained at zero.
⚠️ There’s another practical issue: some NFTs still had approvals granted to Blur contracts. Although current investigations have found no vulnerabilities in the existing contracts, they support upgrades, and the team’s operational status is changing. Users with relevant approvals have been advised to revoke them as soon as possible using tools such as revoke.cash. This is more urgent to address than whether the project shuts down.
💡 Blur and Blast both nearing shutdown shows that hype built on rewards doesn’t necessarily translate into lasting demand. Blur once fueled the explosive growth of the NFT market, while also bringing trading, point farming, and short-term arbitrage to the forefront. Did you farm Blur points back then? Do you still have any approvals in place?
#Blur #NFT #Blend #OnChainSecurity