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As NFT prices seem to take a page out of the book of the infamous 1929 stock market crash, traders have been reduced to shrieking banshees, pointing accusatory fingers left, right, and center. Strangely enough, a lot of these fingers have been targeting Blur.
Blur, which used to be an up-and-coming marketplace, more like a young swashbuckler in the world of digital art, had disrupted the trade by becoming the leading Ethereum NFT trading platform in February, dethroning the previous monarch OpenSea. With a model incentivizing traders faster than free candy at a kid’s party, it converted the notion of unique NFTs into what resembled a mass-produced supermarket line of “altcoins with pictures.”
Blur and the NFT market
An attractive token airdrop gimmick was what placed Blur on the top rung of the marketplace ladder. But, alas, it was not to be sunshine and roses for long. The nifty model became the talk of the town for all the wrong reasons. Traders began flipping NFTs like pancakes on a busy Sunday breakfast, turning Bored Apes and Otherside land into fungible tokens. The flipping was so rapid it would’ve put any laundromat to shame, and it sent the trading volume into the stratosphere.
Unfortunately, like a souffle taken out of the oven too soon, the Blur boost deflated. Market trading has recently experienced the digital equivalent of an ice age, and the big fish, who had initially been winning the reward game, found themselves out of luck and funds.
Prominent voices in the Crypto Twitter choir have been loud and clear in their disapproval of Blur’s practices. Trevor Owens, the Bitcoin Frontier Fund’s choir master, accused Blur of spending millions on their airdrop incentives to lower the price “floor,” like a twisted Robin Hood stealing from the rich NFT market to help the poor traders. Owens was not alone in his indignation. NFT influencer Xero compared Blur’s incentivized model to a risky game of Russian Roulette, leading to an avalanche of NFT loan liquidations.
Meanwhile, an NFT crusader who goes by the name of Mihai took to his blog to tear apart the Blur model, painting it as the cause for the collapsing NFT market. Mihai proposed that Blur was effectively pressing the red button on NFT prices, creating a chasm between sincere and mercenary traders, and paving the way for cyclical price dumps.
However, Blur’s founder, Tieshun “Pacman” Roquerre, dismissed these condemnations faster than one swats a pesky fly. He argued that the market fluctuates based on liquidity more than anything else, and insisted that the criticism is just the bitter fruit of doing business.
Unfazed by the backlash, Blur doubled down, launching a new version of their protocol with even more trading rewards and cheaper transaction fees. A Bored Ape owner, taken aback by this brazen move, retorted by calling Pacman “delusional” and accused him of attempting to bewitch traders.
But every story has its heroes and villains, and in this saga, Rohun “Frank” Vora, the founder of DeGods, emerged in defense of Pacman, arguing that if a market can’t withstand its own actors creating incentive models, it was probably built on quicksand to begin with. So, is Blur the villain of this drama, or just a misunderstood hero? Only time will tell.
What is Blur NFT marketplace?
Blur is a swanky new platform that leaped to fame faster than a kangaroo on a trampoline. It arrived on the scene in October last year with a cape fluttering behind it, touting itself as the ultimate arena for professional NFT gladiators. The platform’s main attraction, its pièce de résistance, was the much-teased token airdrop, which promised potential riches for users who opted for Blur over competitors like OpenSea.
By February, fueled by its adrenaline-inducing token incentive model, Blur was reigning supreme as the number one Ethereum NFT trading platform, supported by herds of traders looking to buy NFTs. But as the old saying goes, it’s lonely at the top, and Blur found itself amidst a whirlwind of controversy. Critics have been quick to point out that the rapid flipping of NFTs on the platform, incentivized by the alluring token airdrop, has resulted in an atmosphere more akin to a volatile crypto exchange than a marketplace for unique digital artwork.
Despite the mounting criticism, Blur has held its ground, insisting that its model is a key part of the evolution of the NFT marketplace.
Featured image by David Izquierdo
