Battle for NFT Marketplace Supremacy Rages On ⋆ ZyCrypto

Last week, the crypto industry witnessed intense competition between the top two NFT marketplaces as Blur surpassed OpenSea’s trading volume on the ethereum blockchain.

Data analytics platform, Nansen, confirmed last week the +600 ETH disparity between OpenSea and Blur’s trading volume which stood at 6,602 ETH. Both had continued to slug it out in the quest to woo customers and claw back market share. Blur — a fast-rising NFT marketplace co-founded in October 2022 by a 21-year-old college dropout, Tieshun Roquerre—set the tone up after it launched a new season to its massive airdrop giveaway.

The new promotion will see over $300 million worth of tokens distributed to both creators and collectors on its platform on one condition—leave OpenSea. In January, Blur launched its $BLUR tokens worth over $3 billion and released the first set of airdrops totalling $360 million.

Both marketplaces have a large intersection of customers looking to take advantage of Blur’s speed and benefits and Opensea’s massive user base. However, maintaining accounts and trading on both platforms means a creator or customer will have no right to full royalties. Blur has asked its customers to leave OpenSea and earn full royalties. 

In reaction to the announcement, OpenSea launched a limited 0% processing fee discount, lifting all restrictions to rival marketplaces with similar policies. There has since been an increase in sales, but the upper hand in actual volume appears to tilt towards Blur. 

OpenSea had remained a top marketplace over the last five years until mid-2022, when it lost some of its market dominance and transaction volume to newer platforms like X2Y2 and Blur. Blur specifically saw impressive gains at the turn of the new year, attaining unicorn valuation and aggressively expanding its marketing strategy to reach new customers. The fledgling marketplace described as “OpenSea’s most successful competition till date” seeks to force OpenSea into a collaboration.

OpenSea, in reaction to the development, added that “many of those seeking to sell their NFTs are trying to sell them for as much as they can. Moving their listing to marketplaces that don’t enforce fees is one way to do this…..unless something changes soon, this space is trending toward significantly fewer fees paid to creators.”

In the opening hours of launch, $BLUR soared up to $6 before plunging below the $1 mark. The token is currently valued at $0.83, according to CoinMarketCap.