Blur, the NFT marketplace that once dominated trading volumes, will shut down its website on November 12, 2026. The platform said the marketplace contracts will stay operational on-chain and the BLUR token will continue to control its fee switch, but users will lose the frontend interface. The news sent BLUR to a record low of $0.01267 on October 13.
At press time, BLUR traded at $0.01347, down 28.43% over 24 hours on $56.06 million in volume. The token has been sliding for months as activity drained from the platform.
What the shutdown covers — and what it doesn't
The closure is specifically the marketplace website, not the underlying smart contracts. That means the marketplace remains technically functional, but without the frontend most users relied on. The fee switch, which directs a portion of protocol fees to BLUR holders, stays in place. In practice, though, there are almost no fees to switch: Blur's fees peaked at $25.58 million in Q1 2023, fell to $2.33 million in Q1 2025, and were just $0.51 in Q3 2026. The past 30 days show no fees at all.
Blend borrowers have until November 12 to repay
Blend, Blur's NFT lending protocol, will stop matching new loans on the same date. Borrowers must repay before November 12 or let their loans default. The lending side was already bleeding: Blend's total value locked dropped from $7.03 million to $5.69 million between October 12 and 13. The number of blue-chip NFTs held as collateral fell by about 160, with Azuki dropping from 271 to 229 and Pudgy Penguins from 289 to 259.
Blast wind-down started 10 days earlier
Blast, the Ethereum layer-2 network also founded by Tieshun 'Pacman' Roquerre, began its own wind-down 10 days before the Blur announcement. Users have until October 26 to withdraw funds through its interface. The two closures are separate but share the same founder, and the timing suggests a broader retreat from the projects Roquerre launched during the last cycle.
A long fall from 2024 highs
Blur's total value locked is now $22.63 million, down from a peak of about $215.9 million on March 9, 2024. The bidding pool's WETH holdings fell from roughly 6,991 to 6,703 between October 12 and 13, a small drop but one that happened as the shutdown news circulated. The platform once led NFT trading with an aggressive incentive program, but volumes and fees have collapsed as the market moved elsewhere.
The next concrete deadline is November 12, when the website goes dark and Blend stops matching new loans. Until then, borrowers can still repay. After that, default becomes the only option for those who don't.
